New Hennepin County unit will review past criminal convictions
Like this?
Log in to share your opinion with MPR News and add it to your profile.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
A new office in Hennepin County will soon be able to review — and possibly overturn — past convictions.
The new Conviction Integrity Unit will look at cases that might have convicted innocent people or had mistakes in trial processes.
“Our criminal legal system is fallible,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “We know that the system occasionally breaks down. People make mistakes, and individuals are convicted of crimes they did not commit or suffer from other miscarriages of justice.”
Moriarty announced Monday that attorney Andrew Markquart will lead the office. Markquart has investigated wrongful convictions with the Great North Innocence Project.
Support the News you Need
Gifts from individuals keep MPR News accessible to all - free of paywalls and barriers.
Markquart said this office will help right mistakes by prosecutors in the past.
“If someone is sitting in prison for a crime they didn’t commit, that is an intolerable offense against that individual, against that individual’s family, against that individual’s community,” Markquart said.
Markquart recently represented Marvin Haynes, whose 2004 murder conviction was overturned last December. He was convicted on faulty eyewitness testimony, without any physical evidence linking him to the murder he allegedly committed.
After Haynes was released, Moriarty named a Conviction Integrity Unit as a possible reform that could help people like Haynes.
On Monday, Haynes said he’s glad to see the unit moving forward.
“This is a chance for the prosecutor’s office to take another look at cases like mine, where the system gets it wrong, and to make things right, because my case is not unique,” Haynes said.
Since getting out of prison, he said, he’s been working and spending time with his family. He recently moved into his own place. But, in the 20 years since his conviction, he missed out on a lot of opportunities and time with his loved ones.
“If something like this existed years ago, maybe I would have gotten justice sooner,” Haynes said.
A similar Conviction Review Unit in the Minnesota Attorney General’s office reviews cases statewide, but Moriarty said the county will benefit from having its own. This will take a caseload off of the state office’s plate, she said.
Markquart said the standard for relief from this unit will be high.
“It is no small matter to overturn a conviction after someone's been found guilty by a jury of their peers,” Markquart said. “That is not something I take lightly.”
The Conviction Integrity Unit is not yet fully staffed. Moriarty said that she will be making additional budget requests to the county board. Eventually, she plans to have more staff members in the office.
Once it’s up and running, people will be able to apply for reconsideration of their convictions through the Hennepin County Attorney’s website.
Correction (July 2, 2024): Andrew Markquart’s last name was spelled incorrectly in a couple instances in a previous version of this story. The story has been updated.