Conservative media personality Ben Shapiro has launched an effort seeking to have Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, be released from prison.

Shapiro, a political commentator with millions of online followers, launched a petition calling on President Donald Trump to pardon Chauvin, who in 2021 was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for Floyd's death.

In a letter addressed to the president, Shapiro claims Chauvin was "unjustly convicted" and called the conviction a "defining achievement of the Woke movement in American politics."

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"As you know, this was the inciting event for the BLM riots that caused $2 billion in property damage in cities across the United States and set America’s race relations on their worst footing in recent memory," the letter states. "Yet the evidence demonstrates that Derek Chauvin did not murder George Floyd."

"George Floyd was high on fentanyl," Shapiro continues. "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."

In the letter, Shapiro also accuses then-President Joe Biden and other Democrats of using their influence and the media to apply "pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict." Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the effort by Shapiro "another example of blatant disrespect for the law, blatant disrespect for George Floyd and his family."

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Floyd died in 2020 after Chauvin attempted to arrest him for allegedly using counterfeit money to buy cigarettes at a Minneapolis convenience store. However, when officers arrived, a struggle ensued and Chauvin proceeded to kneel on Floyd's neck for nearly ten minutes. The case sparked nationwide outrage and protests over police misconduct.

An autopsy performed by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office determined Floyd's death a homicide due to "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." The autopsy also found Fentanyl and other illicit drugs in Floyd's system, but they were not found to have caused his death.

A separate, independent autopsy ordered by Floyd's family found that he died by asphyxiation.

Judge Peter Cahill, who oversaw the case, sentenced Chauvin to more than the recommended 12.5 years behind bars because he allegedly occupied a position of authority as a police officer, and because he demonstrated particular cruelty in the killing.

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Chauvin's attorney appealed the verdict and asked for the charges to be removed because of the publicity surrounding the case, and because of procedural errors that affected the possibility of a fair trial. One juror in the case had participated in a civil rights gathering commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr., and did not disclose that participation until after Chauvin's trial had concluded.

But an appeals court found the lower court was appropriately cautious and thorough in hearing the case and handling the jury, despite the media attention.

Separately, Chauvin was sentenced in federal court in 2022 to 252 months plus time served for violating the civil rights of Floyd and a then-14-year-old victim. The Justice Department held that Chauvin used unreasonable force against Floyd and against the other victim.

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After his 2021 conviction, Chauvin was initially held at the Minnesota Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in the state's Oak Park Heights area. However, he was later transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution Tucson, a medium-security prison in Arizona.

There Chauvin was stabbed by an inmate and ultimately transferred again in August 2024 to FCI Big Spring, a lower security prison in Texas, where he remains to this day.