(C) Minnesota Reformer This story was originally published by Minnesota Reformer and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Minnesota man released from prison nearly 20 years after wrongful murder conviction [1] ['Madison Mcvan', 'More From Author', '- December'] Date: 2023-12-11 Marvin Haynes left Stillwater state prison Monday morning a free man after a judge found he did not commit a north Minneapolis murder that sent him to prison 19 years ago. Hours after his release — days after his 36th birthday — he addressed a room full of reporters, advocates, friends and family members in the Hennepin County Government Center. “I just appreciate everybody — their support and their love. I’m exonerated now,” Marvin Haynes said, smiling as his supporters clapped and cheered. He wore a shirt with the logo for the Great North Innocence Project, which provided legal representation. Hennepin County District Court Judge William Koch vacated the conviction* after Marvin Haynes’ attorneys and the county attorney’s office agreed the evidence used to convict him was “inconsistent with best practices and unnecessarily suggestive. The ruling overturns a conviction overseen by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, then leading the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and burnishing a tough-on-crime resume that would help fuel her race for higher office. In May 2004, a man entered a flower shop in north Minneapolis and demanded money from an employee, Cynthia McDermid; hearing the commotion, her brother Harry “Randy” Sherer ran into the store, where the man shot him. McDermid escaped and described the suspect as a young Black man with “short-cropped hair,” as did a 14-year-old witness who saw the shooter escape. Police showed McDermid a photo lineup that did not include Marvin Haynes, and she identified the shooter in the lineup with “75 to 80%” confidence. The man she identified, however, was not a suspect and was out of the state at the time of the killing. Two days later, police received an anonymous tip that suggested Marvin Haynes, who was 16 at the time, had committed the murder. Marvin Haynes’ appearance did not match that of the suspect — his hair was much longer, and he was shorter and lighter than the man McDermid described. Marvin Haynes’ family told police he was sleeping at home at the time of the killing. Despite protests from one of the police investigators on the case, officers returned to McDermid with more photo lineups, this time including in multiple lineups a two-year-old photo of Haynes in which his hair was shorter, more closely matching the witnesses’ description of the shooter. Both witnesses picked Marvin Haynes out of the lineup but expressed doubts about their selections, according to the Great North Innocence Project. The police broke with best practices in several ways, according to the Great North Innocence Project: by showing the same suspect in multiple lineups, by using an out-of-date photo, and by having officers who knew Marvin Haynes was a suspect administer the lineup. The teenager who witnessed the shooter escaping later said he never got a good look at the man’s face, but felt pressured at the time to help identify the killer. Police never recovered the murder weapon, and no physical evidence linked Marvin Haynes to the crime. “The system failed (McDermid) and her family, because the police never found the person responsible for the murder of their loved one,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Monday. “They never had real closure in this case … We will never know whether Harry Sherer’s killer harmed others.” When a jury found Marvin Haynes guilty in 2005, he cried and said “I didn’t kill that man! They’re all going to burn in hell for that.” As Moriarty spoke, Marvin Haynes stood behind her, occasionally lifting his left arm and wrapping it around the shoulders of his older sister, Marvina Haynes. Marvina Haynes, who became an advocate for justice system reform after her brother’s wrongful conviction, said it took many years of persistent advocacy to get the conviction overturned. When Moriarty was campaigning for county attorney, Marvina Haynes followed her around on the campaign trail and tried repeatedly to inform Moriarty of the details of Marvin’s case. “I don’t want to know the details of his case,” Moriarty told Marvina Haynes at the time. She wanted to follow the official process, she said, avoiding the facts of the case until her office put it before her. The Great North Innocence Project formally brought the case to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. The exoneration required cooperation from Moriarty’s office, which voluntarily waived some rules regarding the statute of limitation, allowing the case to be revisited. “Here in Minnesota, it is exceedingly difficult to bring a post-conviction claim if you’re more than two years out from your conviction,” said Andrew Markquart, an attorney for Great North Innocence Project. “As a matter of good public policy, we can’t just rely on prosecutors to voluntarily do the right thing.” The Great North Innocence Project is advocating for legislation that would extend the statute of limitations for “meritorious claims based on newly discovered evidence,” he said. Moriarty said she would support that legislation. Marvin Haynes’ exoneration comes after the 2020 commutation of a life sentence imposed on Myon Burrell, who was convicted of killing 11-year old Tyesha Edwards in a case also plagued by investigative flaws. Klobuchar also oversaw that case as Hennepin County attorney. In a statement, a spokesperson for Klobuchar said “the senator respects the judicial process. She has worked closely with the Innocence Project on reforms and has long supported their work, and will continue to do so.” The mistaken prosecution could cost taxpayer money: Marvin Haynes is likely to qualify for compensation for his wrongful conviction, Markquart said. In the meantime, his supporters are setting up a GoFundMe while Marvin looks for work. At the press conference, Marvin Haynes said he hadn’t yet seen his mother; she had a stroke a few years ago and had been unable to visit him in prison. “After I leave here, that’s the first place I’m going,” he said. *A previous version of this article misstated the process by which the conviction was vacated. 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