Supreme Court to decide age of shooting suspect

The attorney for a triple murder suspect will have another chance to argue for his client to be tried as a juvenile.

The suspect, Mahdi Hassan Ali, is accused of killing three men at the Seward Market in south Minneapolis in January 2010. His attorney Frederick Goetz says Ali was younger than 16 at the time.

Ali has no birth certificate. But a Hennepin County court judge ruled that Ali's dental records prove he was older than 16 at the time of the shooting.

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that it will hear the appeal directly. Goetz says the court needs to set a higher standard for determining the age of juvenile defendants like his client.

"What is the burden of proof to be applied to determine whether or not someone is 16 years of age or older at the date of the offense, and therefore subject to prosecution as an adult?" said Goetz. "Should that be the lowest standard that we have? Or should it be subject to a higher standard?"

The murder trial is scheduled to begin in September, but it could be delayed by the appeals process. The court will hear oral arguments in June.

(MPR's Brandt Williams contributed to this report)

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