A Minnesota man may receive $4.5 million from the state, after spending nearly two decades in prison for a murder conviction that was later overturned.
In 2023, Marvin Haynes was released from the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater, after a judge found that an “unnecessarily suggestive” identification procedure used by police and a lack of any physical evidence was enough to vacate his conviction.
A claims bill working its way through the Legislature would pay Haynes $4.5 million under the state’s Imprisonment and Exoneration Remedies Act.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota Senate Finance Committee approved the claims bill, and it is set to have a hearing in a House committee. It will need approval of both bodies and the governor to be paid out.
“I hope that Mr. Haynes has a good rest of his life,” Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said during Wednesday’s Finance Committee hearing.
Haynes was convicted in the killing of Harry “Randy” Sherer in Minneapolis, a crime that happened when Haynes was 16.
Years later, the Great North Innocence Project filed post-conviction petitions, calling into question the police identification procedure, finding two eyewitnesses who recanted on their testimony and an overall lack of any physical evidence tying Haynes to the crime. A judge agreed and vacated the conviction, writing in the order to vacate “the interests of justice would be served by dismissing with prejudice all charges.”
When Haynes was finally released, he’d spent 19 years, six months and 23 days in prison.
After his release, Haynes wrote in a statement that “it is devastating that it took so long for the truth to come out. My life was destroyed by the officers who wrongly chose to fabricate a case against me, and I have a long road in front of me to heal.”
