MINNEAPOLIS — A judge vacated the first-degree murder conviction of a Minneapolis man who was sentenced to life in prison at age 16. Judge William Koch said the conviction of Marvin Haynes was based on flawed evidence that failed to link him to the crime. Haynes, now age 36 years old, was ordered released immediately from the Stillwater state prison. He has been in prison 14 years. Hayes maintained his innocence at his 2005 trial. When he was hauled away he shouted: “I did no kill that man.” His case eventually came to the attention of the Great North Innocence Project, which won a hearing from Judge Koch, who last week held a two-day review of the facts in the prosecution’s 2005 case .
Murder scene. At 3300 Lyndale Avenue North n Minneapolis. A clerk at Jerry’s Flower Shop, Randy Harry Sherer, 55, was shot and killed. Prosecutors pinned the crime on 16-year-old Marvin Haynes but, now says a judge, the evidence was pressed harder than warranted back then and ignored plausible alibis.
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Mary Moriarty, Hennepin County’s current chief prosecutor: “Almost 20 years ago, a terrible injustice occurred when the state prosecuted Marvin Haynes. We inflicted harm on Mr. Haynes and his family, and also on Harry Sherer, the victim, his family, and the community. We cannot undo the trauma experienced by those impacted by this prosecution, but today we have taken a step toward righting this wrong.
“Mr. Haynes’ conviction rested almost exclusively on eyewitness identification. There was no forensic evidence, such as fingerprints or DNA. There was no video connecting him to the crime. The murder weapon was never recovered. That should have made any prosecutor hesitant to bring charges because eyewitness identifications are often unreliable and one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions. Nationally, nearly 28% of exonerations involve eyewitness identification. Mr. Haynes’ conviction is now one of them.
I” am proud to lead the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the public should know we seek to do the right thing every day. Doing the right thing sometimes means we must seek to undo the harms of the past, not defend them. And that is what we have tried to do today. It is not easy to admit and correct our wrongs. But it is necessary.
“To Marvin Haynes: You lost the opportunity to graduate from high school, attend prom, have relationships, attend weddings and funerals, and be with your family during holidays. For that, I am so deeply sorry. And for that, I commit to correcting other injustices and to making sure that we do not participate in making our own.”