In addition to his state murder conviction, former police officer Derek Chauvin was also sentenced to 22 years in federal prison over the 2020 death of George Floyd.

However, an attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ) recently suggested that Chauvin should be pardoned as he did not receive a fair trial. 

Attorney: "I think it’s very clear that it was a drug overdose"

According to Breitbart, that message was put forward on Tuesday by Associate Deputy Attorney General Ed Martin, who is in charge of reviewing pardon applications.

"I am, Ed Martin, as pardon attorney, looking at it. I’m looking at it very closely," Martin said of a potential pardon for Chauvin during an appearance on the "The Alex Marlow Show."

"I think it’s very clear that it was a drug overdose, and it’s very clear that Derek Chauvin is not a saint, but neither am I," Martin told Marlow.

"The question is, whether there’s a role to be played for a commutation or pardon, and, more importantly, whether the system — the system of justice has to be checked every now and then for fairness," he continued.

"It’s not only mercy on someone, it’s, when you — I watched that trial. And that was not a fair trial," the DOJ official argued.

"I think Derek Chauvin’s case, very clearly, was problematic in how it went about, and, therefore, it’s worth, again, a look that’s different than a different time or a different place. It deserves a hard look," he went on to add.

Podcast host Ben Shapiro supports pardoning Chauvin

Among those advocating that Chauvin be pardoned is conservative podcast host Ben Shapiro, who addressed the subject in a letter to President Donald Trump.

"George Floyd was high on fentanyl. He had a significant pre-existing heart condition," Shapiro pointed out in his March correspondence.

Shapiro recalled how Floyd "was saying he could not breathe before he was even out of the car," adding, "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."

What's more, Shapiro emphasized that "[t]here was no accusation at trial that Derek Chauvin targeted George Floyd for his race."

Shapiro points to "massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty"

In addition to making the case for Chauvin's innocence, Shapiro also highlighted irregularities in the former law enforcement officer's trial.

"Perhaps most significantly, there was massive overt pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict regardless of the evidence or any semblance of impartial deliberation," Shapiro wrote.

"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," he stated.