Elon Musk has joined calls for President Trump to pardon ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020. A Trump pardon would end Chauvin’s 20-year sentence on federal convictions for violating Floyd’s civil rights, but Trump does not have the power to commute Chauvin’s 22.5-year sentence on state murder charges.
Was he convicted federally, or is Musk just generating distractions for the news media?
He has a federal conviction for 20 years and a state conviction for 22.5 years
Good, so not going anywhere.
Chauvin is at FCI Big Spring (Federal Correctional Institute) so he likely has federal charges.
State charges might have been dropped due to the federal convention so he could possibly still have a state trial
If the charges were dropped then I don’t think they can be re-litigated. That would be double jeopardy.
Most likely wouldn’t apply unless a state trial had already started.
Why? Dropping the charges would be a court decision so it’s on record that a charge was raised and then dropped. That’s still a court outcome.