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Musk backs Conservative icon’s petition for Derek Chauvin pardon, says murder conviction unjust

March 5, 2025 | | Print Article

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has launched a petition calling for the pardon of Derek Chauvin, and Elon Musk is pondering it.

Launched Tuesday by Shapiro’s The Daily Wire, the petition alleges that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction for the murder of doped-up criminal George Floyd was “unjust.”

“[T]he evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd,” the petition reads. “George Floyd was high on fentanyl. He had a significant pre-existing heart condition. He was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car.”

“Derek Chauvin, for large segments of the widely circulated video of the encounter, had his knee on George Floyd’s shoulder or back, not on his neck; this was confirmed by the autopsy, which showed no damage to George Floyd’s trachea. There was no accusation at trial that Derek Chauvin targeted George Floyd for his race,” it continues.

The petition goes on to suggest that the primary reason Chauvin was convicted wasn’t because he was guilty but rather because of the “massive overt pressure on the jury” from Democrats and the media.

“This pressure took the form of threats, coercion, and intimidation,” the petition reads. “The Mayor of Minneapolis pre-judged the outcome of the trial and immediately issued a large settlement to the Floyd family. Then-President Biden, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and others pre-judged the outcome of the trial and took to national media to create pressure on the jury to go along with their preferred narrative.”

This pressure made it virtually impossible “for blind justice to work,” which is why an innocent man “is now rotting in prison.”

“Make no mistake—the Derek Chauvin conviction represents the defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics,” the petition concludes. “The country cannot turn the page on that dark, divisive, and racist era without righting this terrible wrong.”

Musk has tacitly endorsed the petition by retweeting Shapiro’s video message seen above and writing, “Something to think about.”

Look:

In another tweet, he added, “Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong.”

For Chauvin to earn his freedom, he’d have to be pardoned twice – once by President Donald Trump and once by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

The reason is that he’s concurrently serving both a 21-year federal sentence for allegedly violating Floyd’s civil rights and a slightly longer 22.5-year Minnesota State sentence for second-degree murder.

The petition is therefore clearly aimed at convincing Trump because Walz is a rabid leftist who’d never in a million years pardon Chauvin. This means that even if Trump were to pardon Chauvin, he’d still remain incarcerated, as noted by Walz’s attorney general, Keith Ellison.

Ellison told The Minnesota Star Tribune that Trump has no power to pardon Chauvin on the state level and that he, therefore, won’t be walking free anytime soon.

“[Chauvin] murdered George Floyd in front of the whole world,” he added. “The only conceivable purpose [in pursuing a pardon] would be to express yet more disrespect for George Floyd and more disrespect for the rule of law.”

Minnesota Department of Corrections commissioner Paul Schnell said the same, telling the Tribune that if Chauvin were pardoned federally, he’d simply be returned to state custody to finish his second sentence.

Chauvin’s currently anticipated release date is Dec. 10th, 2035.

“A Hennepin County jury found Chauvin guilty in 2021 of three charges, including murder,” the Tribune notes. “He pleaded guilty in the federal trial. Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced the former officer to 245 months in 2022.”

“The federal guilty plea included an agreement to not challenge his sentence except under a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. Chauvin is still seeking to overturn his federal sentence using that exact argument,” the reporting continues.

He’s currently serving time in a federal prison in Arizona – the same one where he was stabbed 22 times in 2023.

Vivek Saxena
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