The Minnesota Supreme Court has denied former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s request for a public defender as he appeals his murder conviction and 22-and-a-half year sentence in the death of George Floyd.

Chauvin filed documents in September saying he intends to appeal his conviction on 14 grounds, including that his trial should have been moved from Hennepin county and that the jury should have been sequestered.

The Supreme Court said Chauvin may seek a public defender in the future if he cannot pay for a lawyer.

Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11, a move that could combat an alarming rise in serious infections in youngsters and help schools stay open.

If regulators give the go-ahead, reduced-dose kids’ shots could begin within a matter of weeks for the roughly 28 million U.S. children in that age group.

A federal judge ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., calling it an “offensive deprivation” of a constitutional right. The law has banned most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state since September.

The judicial order Wednesday is the first legal blow to the Texas law which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges. 

Texas officials intend to seek a reversal from the U.S. circuit court of appeals.

Elijah Todd-Walden can be reached at elijah.todd-walden@stthomas.edu