Prosecutor: No DNA exonerations after review of 14K Minn. cases

Updated 2:30 p.m. | Posted 11:40 a.m.

Minnesota officials have reviewed more than 14,000 criminal cases across Minnesota from the 1980s and '90s to see if advances in DNA technology could exonerate any convicted felons.

Their conclusion? No.

After "extensive investigation," authorities determined that 33 cases could potentially provide evidence bearing on a defendant's guilt if new DNA testing was done.

Of those, 12 defendants declined testing, 11 tests were inconclusive, eight confirmed the original conviction and two are still outstanding, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Wednesday.

"To be clear, we didn't review from beginning to end each and every case," Freeman told reporters. "But what we wanted to do is take new DNA technology to review prior cases to make sure the wrong person hadn't been convicted."

One of the two outstanding cases involves the rape of a suburban girl.

The other is that of convicted serial killer Billy Glaze, who died in prison last year.

Before his death, Glaze's lawyers had pushed to have his conviction thrown out and a new trial ordered in light of new DNA evidence they said might prove his innocence.

Freeman made it clear Wednesday he wants to be done with the case.

"Now that Glaze is dead, enough is enough," he said. "Let's stop spending public dollars on this."

Freeman said Glaze had admitted to the killings and spoken frequently about killing American Indian women. But lawyers with the Innocence Project of Minnesota said Glaze was mentally ill and the confessions were false.

A judge is expected to rule soon on whether Glaze's case can continue.

"The justice system should make a determination on whether he should be exonerated," said Julie Jonas, a lawyer representing Glaze who's also legal director for the Innocence Project of Minnesota. "It's not Mike Freeman's determination."

Freeman's office, along with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Innocence Project of Minnesota and Office of Minnesota's Board of Public Defense, won a federal grant in 2010 to review the cases to determine if DNA technology could exonerate any convicted felons.

The 1980s and 1990s were decades when DNA technology "either did not exist, or was in its infancy and required a larger sample to analyze than is necessary today," Freeman's office said.

"This project has been an incredible learning experience for the Hennepin County Attorney's Office and I hope that it can serve as a model for others to follow," Freeman said in a statement.

"We prosecutors are human. We make mistakes," he added. "When we make mistakes, they can have dramatic impacts on people's lives, so we know we must constantly review how we do our job."