Star Tribune
U.S. Supreme Court rejects review of Derek Chauvin’s latest appeal attempt
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s latest appeal attempt Monday, just a week after he filed a new motion attempting to overturn his federal conviction in the murder of George Floyd.
The court did not give an explanation for the rejection. It was included in a long list of other cases it declined to review.
In the motion to vacate his federal sentence filed last Monday, Chauvin said that he would not have pleaded guilty in his federal case if his attorney at the time, Eric Nelson, had informed him that a pathologist offered to testify that Chauvin didn’t cause Floyd’s death.
Floyd’s murder in May 2020, when Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, sparked a global reckoning over race and policing.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner ruled Floyd’s death a homicide after he had cardiac arrest likely caused by the restraint. Doctors hired by Floyd’s family said they believe he died of asphyxia. Chauvin’s defense argued at trial that Floyd died of natural causes related to drug use.
After reviewing the motion, Minneapolis attorney Joe Tamburino said it would be a “long shot” for Chauvin to be awarded a new trial.
Chauvin, 47, remains incarcerated at a medium-security federal prison in Tucson, Ariz.
A Hennepin County jury convicted Chauvin of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2021. He was sentenced to 22½ years in prison that June and later pleaded guilty in federal court.
A federal judge sentenced him to more than 20 years in prison for violating the civil rights of Floyd and a Black Minneapolis teen when Chauvin used excessive force during an encounter in 2017.
Chauvin has filed multiple failed appeals.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals in April rejected his request for a new trial outside Hennepin County after Chauvin argued pretrial publicity — the global unrest, media coverage and calls for police reform — made a fair trial impossible. A three-judge panel issued a unanimous 50-page decision rejecting his request.
Neal Katyal, who was acting U.S. solicitor general during the Obama administration and served as one of the special prosecutors in Chauvin’s murder trial, said in his oral argument that it was one of the most transparent, thorough trials in U.S. history and Chauvin’s appeal arguments do not come close to reversing his convictions.
Staff writer Louis Krauss contributed to this report.
Two people from Minnetonka were killed late Friday afternoon when their GMC Suburban ran a stop sign and was struck by a GMC Yukon headed north on Hwy. 169 west of Palisade, Minn.
According to the State Patrol, Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, and Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, were dead at the scene. The driver of the Suburban, a 61-year-old Minnetonka man, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Suburban, pulling a trailer, was headed east on Grove Street/County Rd. 3 at about 5:15 p.m. when it failed to stop at Hwy. 169 and was struck by the northbound Yukon. The Yukon then struck two westbound vehicles stopped at the intersection.
Four people from Zimmerman, Minn., in the Yukon, including the driver, were taken to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, while two passengers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Three girls in the Yukon ranged in age from 11 to 15.
The drivers of the two vehicles struck by the Yukon were not injured, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were dry at the time of the accident, and alcohol was not believed to have been a factor. All involved in the accident were wearing a seat belt except for Elizabeth Baldwin.
Hill City police and the Aitkin County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
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