MINNEAPOLIS — An attorney for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, said Saturday that Chauvin’s family has been kept in the dark by federal prison officials after he was stabbed in prison.
The lawyer, Gregory M. Erickson, slammed the lack of transparency by the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Saturday, a day after his client was stabbed by another inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson, Arizona, a prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages.
A person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday that Chauvin was seriously injured in the stabbing. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the attack.
“We have heard that he is expected to survive,” Brian Evans, a spokesperson for the Minnesota attorney general’s office, said Saturday.
People are also reading…
Erickson said Chauvin’s family and his attorneys hit a wall trying to obtain information about the attack from Bureau of Prisons officials. He said Chauvin’s family was forced to assume he is in stable condition, based only on news accounts, and contacted the prison repeatedly but has been provided with no information.
“As an outsider, I view this lack of communication with his attorneys and family members as completely outrageous,” Erickson said in a statement to the AP. “It appears to be indicative of a poorly run facility and indicates how Derek’s assault was allowed to happen.”
Erickson’s comments highlight concerns raised for years that federal prison officials provide little to no information to the loved ones of incarcerated people who are seriously injured or ill. The AP previously reported the Bureau of Prisons ignored its internal guidelines and failed to notify families of inmates who were seriously ill with COVID-19.
The issue prompted federal legislation introduced last year in the U.S. Senate that would require the Justice Department to establish guidelines for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and state correctional systems to notify families of incarcerated people if their loved one has a serious illness, a life-threatening injury or if they die behind bars.
A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday evening.
The bureau only confirmed an assault at the Arizona facility and said employees performed “life-saving measures” before the inmate was taken to a hospital for treatment and evaluation. It did not name the victim or provide a medical status “for privacy and safety reasons.”
FILE – In this image taken from video, former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court at the Hennepin County Courthouse, June 25, 2021, in Minneapolis. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, was stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured Friday, Nov. 24, 2023, at a federal prison in Arizona, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Prosecutors who successfully pursued a second-degree murder conviction against Chauvin at a jury trial in 2021 expressed dismay that he became the target of violence while in federal custody.
Terrence Floyd, George Floyd’s brother, told the AP on Saturday that he wouldn’t wish for anyone to be stabbed in prison and said he felt numb when he learned of the news.
“I’m not going to give my energy towards anything that happens within those four walls — because my energy went towards getting him in those four walls,” he said.
Chauvin’s stabbing is the second high-profile attack on a federal prisoner in the last five months. In July, disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar was stabbed by a fellow inmate at a federal penitentiary in Florida.
Chauvin, 47, was sent to FCI Tucson from a maximum-security Minnesota state prison in August 2022 to simultaneously serve a 21-year federal sentence for violating Floyd’s civil rights and a 22½-year state sentence for second-degree murder.
Another of Chauvin’s lawyers, Eric Nelson, advocated for keeping him out of the general population and away from other inmates, anticipating he’d be a target. In Minnesota, Chauvin was mainly kept in solitary confinement “largely for his own protection,” Nelson wrote in court papers last year.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Chauvin’s appeal of his murder conviction. Separately, Chauvin is making a long-shot bid to overturn his federal guilty plea, claiming new evidence shows he didn’t cause Floyd’s death.
Floyd, who was Black, was killed May 25, 2020, after Chauvin, who is white, pressed a knee on his neck for 9½ minutes on the street outside a convenience store where Floyd was suspected of trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.
Bystander video captured Floyd’s cries of “I can’t breathe.” His death touched off protests worldwide and forced a reckoning with police brutality and racism.
Three other former officers received lesser state and federal sentences for their roles in Floyd’s death.
The federal Bureau of Prisons faced increased scrutiny following wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein’s jail suicide in 2019 and “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski’s suicide at a federal medical center in June.
At the federal prison in Tucson last year, an inmate at the facility’s low-security prison camp pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot a visitor in the head. The weapon, which the inmate shouldn’t have had, misfired and no one was hurt.
An AP investigation uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons, the Justice Department’s largest law enforcement agency with more than 30,000 employees, 158,000 inmates and an annual budget of about $8 billion.
AP reporting revealed rampant sexual abuse and other criminal conduct by staff, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that hampered responses to emergencies, including inmate assaults and suicides.
Photos: Remembering George Floyd
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
A stone for George Floyd is pictured on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the Say Their Names Cemetery on May 25 in Minneapolis.
People gather along the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum during a Justice for George Floyd protest May 30, 2020, in Philadelphia. The third anniversary of Floyd’s murder is May 25, 2023.
Demonstrators gather outside Cup Foods to celebrate the murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the killing of George Floyd, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis. The third anniversary of Floyd’s murder is May 25.
Demonstrators rally at Lincoln Memorial on June 4, 2020, in Washington, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes.
In this image from surveillance video, Minneapolis police officers from left, Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane attempt to take George Floyd into custody in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 25, 2020.
Police use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse protesters during a demonstration against police violence and racial injustice in Portland, Ore., Sept. 5, 2020, sparked by the killing of George Floyd. The third anniversary of Floyd’s murder is May 25.
President Joe Biden greets Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, after he signed an executive order in the East Room of the White House, on May 25, 2022, in Washington.
A guard holds the door as Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, walks out of the West Wing of the White House, on May 25, 2021, in Washington.
Protesters kneel in front of New York City Police Department officers before being arrested for violating curfew beside the iconic Plaza Hotel on 59th Street, June 3, 2020, in New York. Protests continued following the death of George Floyd, who died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on May 25.
Preschool children visit the site where George Floyd was murdered by then Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, as the kids took a field trip to the memorial, June 24, 2021, in Minneapolis.
A woman leaves roses along a tribute for George Floyd on the three-year anniversary of his death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Tributes are displayed on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
A stone for George Floyd is pictured on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the Say Their Names Cemetery on May 25 in Minneapolis.
People hold signs saying “Say Their Names” and pay tribute to George Floyd and other Black lives lost to police brutality on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the Say Their Names Cemetery on May 25 in Minneapolis. The murder of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the fervent protests that erupted around the world in response, looked to many observers like the catalyst needed for a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, left, shakes hands with an activist on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara raises his fist in solidarity on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara raises his fist in solidarity on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death at George Floyd Square on May 25 in Minneapolis. The murder of Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and the fervent protests that erupted around the world in response, looked to many observers like the catalyst needed for a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)