Hennepin County prosecutor declines to charge teen murderers as adults, will be free at 21

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://twitter.com/kare11/status/1633988046281490432
This is fairly controversial now. What happened is a 23-year old woman's ex-boyfriend hired a 17-year old and his 15-year old brother to do a home invasion and kill her, which is what happened. No manslaughter or accidental killing here, they broke in with an illegally obtained handgun and shot her down. Hennepin County's new County Attorney elected on a reformist platform opted to drop the charges against both to be charged as adults and offered a plea bargain to be charged as juveniles, meaning they will only serve 2 years and then probation until they turn 21 for first degree murder.

The main justification argument is that this is for a plea bargain in exchange for their testimony against the ex which could put him away him for life, but most seem to believe they could probably convict him without such evidence. The victim's family are not happy. Neither is the assistant district attorney who originally tried the case who actually removed herself from it after this decision in protest.

I voted for Moriarty and her opponent really sucked (in hindsight it's a shame Ryan Winkler didn't make the second round, he was neither in the mold of Chesa Boudin but also not a "tough on crime" time hardliner), but yeah I can totally see why people are not happy about this. Remember this is not some accidental or spur of the moment killing, it was 100% premediated and planned murder.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah, I'm also not against an intermediate category of legal responsibility where we recognize you're somewhat responsible for your actions but not to the same extent as a fully grown adult (and just to trigger BRTD, we could even say it goes all the way up to 25 since that's around when the brain stops developing). I agree that 2 years in juvie for premeditated murder seems a bit lenient here, though there should be a solution that still allows these guys to have a meaningful chance of reforming, which clearly cannot happen if they spend the rest of their teens and twenties in prison.

By that logic the guy who orchestrated it and is probably getting life should get a far more lenient sentence because he is 22.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Bump

https://twitter.com/louraguse/status/1644103430879821826

This is kind of big for two reasons:

1-Ellison actually endorsed Moriarty. They aren't political rivals.
2-This is extremely rare in Minnesota. The law only allows the AG to take over a case if the Governor requests it so that has obviously happened, and this has only occurred once prior in Minnesota under the law which is over 50 years old.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

....and Moriarty has decided to double down and held a press conference today openly attacking Walz and Ellison.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/04/07/mckeever-case-moriarty-hennepin-prosecutor-rips-walz-ellison-for-taking-over

Definitely not good political instincts to put it mildly. This is a textbook example where you just take the L. Also shows why I didn't vote for her in the first round.