Derek Chauvin’s legal team will be permitted to examine heart tissue and fluid samples taken from George Floyd’s autopsy for an appeal of the former Minneapolis officer’s federal civil rights conviction based on a medical theory that Chauvin did not cause Floyd’s death.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson on Monday granted a motion from Chauvin to inspect the evidence as part of a claim that a heart condition, and not Chauvin’s knee on Floyd’s neck, killed Floyd during a May 2020 police encounter that sparked widespread civil unrest.

Chauvin, who is serving state and federal prison sentences in excess of 20 years, is seeking to overturn his 2022 federal civil rights conviction over “ineffective assistance of counsel.” Chauvin is arguing that his original defense attorney, Eric Nelson, failed to inform him that a forensic pathologist based in Topeka, Kan., told Nelson he did not think Chauvin caused Floyd’s death.

Chauvin added that Nelson failed to seek testing of heart tissue samples that Dr. William Schaetzel believed would show evidence of a heart condition called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy.

“Given the significant nature of the criminal case that Mr. Chauvin was convicted of, and given that the discovery that Mr. Chauvin seeks could support Dr. Schaetzel’s opinion of how Mr. Floyd died, the Court finds that there is good cause to allow Mr. Chauvin to take the discovery that he seeks,” Magnuson wrote in Monday’s order.

Manguson wrote that Chauvin’s defense team may take discovery of any histology slides of Floyd’s heart, tissue samples of his heart, tissue blocks containing heart tissue from Floyd and recut sections of all autopsy tissue slides relating to his heart.

Chauvin’s lawyers are also allowed to inspect and make copies of any photographs taken of Floyd’s heart and they can take quantities of certain fluids for testing.

Nelson no longer represents Chauvin. Chauvin’s appeal is now being handled by Robert Meyers, an assistant federal defender in Minneapolis.

MOSCOW — An estimated 3,700 tons of low-grade fuel oil has spilled into the Kerch Strait after two Russian ships were seriously damaged by stormy weather, Russian state media reported Monday.

The two ships, the Volgoneft 239 and the Volgoneft 212, were transporting roughly 9,200 tons of mazut, a heavy, low-quality oil product. Social media footage from the scene showed a black liquid rising among the waves.

Preliminary estimates say that 3,700 tons of mazut leaked into the sea, Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti reported, citing an unnamed source. In a statement, the leader of Russia’s nearby Krasnodar region, Gov. Veniamin Kondratev, said that the oil had not yet reached the shore.

An emergency rescue operation was launched Sunday after the Volgoneft-212 tanker ran aground and had its bow torn away in storm conditions, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said. One sailor in the 13-man crew died, officials said.

A second tanker, the Volgoneft-239, was also left damaged and adrift with 14 crewmembers on board. It later ran aground 80 meters from shore, close to the port of Taman in Russia’s Krasnodar region, from where the sailors were later rescued.

Russian officials confirmed the oil spill Sunday, but said that experts were still working to assess its full impact and extent.

The Kerch Strait separates the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia and is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.

It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months.

Charges could come as soon as Monday against a man accused of fleeing law enforcement in the east metro until he crashed his vehicle and killed another driver.

Nicholas John Price, 37, of Roseville, remains jailed on suspicion of criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the collision late Friday near the corner of Edgerton Street and Bellwood Avenue in Maplewood.

The other driver, whose identity has yet to be released, died after suffering cardiac arrest, the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office said.

According to the sheriff’s office:

Police in Roseville tried to pull over Price near Rice Street and E. County Rd. as a suspect in a domestic assault involving his former girlfriend.

Price sped into Maplewood, where a sheriff’s deputy spotted him racing south on Edgerton and gave chase. The suspect was far ahead of the deputy when he crashed into the other vehicle about 10:30 p.m.

Court records in Minnesota show that Price’s criminal history includes four convictions for driving either after his license was revoked or suspended, and once each for drunken driving and driving without insurance.

He’s also been convicted four times for receiving stolen property, three times for theft and once each for illegal weapons possession, burglary, check forgery, disorderly conduct and obstructing police.