The proposed legislation (HF 2400/SF 2597) would allow more convicted cases to get a second look if there’s new evidence. Andrew Markquart, managing attorney at Great North Innocence Project, says he hopes this will give more people with legitimate claims another day in court.

Great North Innocence Project client exonerated after nearly 20 years in prison for wrongful conviction

Great North Innocence Project Press Release | December 11, 2023

The Great North Innocence Project (GNIP) announced today that their client Marvin Haynes will be released from the Minnesota Correction Facility – Stillwater after spending nearly 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. GNIP will hold a press conference with the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO) and the Haynes family about the matter today at noon at the Hennepin County Government Center.

For more coverage on Marvin Haynes’ release check out stories from: the New York Times, StarTribune, CNN, & Fox 9 News.

Meet Great North Innocence Project executive director, Sara Jones, and learn about the inside workings of GNIP’s legal, outreach, and advocacy processes.

Oral arguments hear if ND woman should get new trial in death of 3-week-old

KFYR | June 26, 2023

Oral arguments were held Monday in the North Dakota Supreme Court on whether a New England woman should get a new trial for the death of her three-week-old daughter.

Last year, Cassandra (Cassi) Black Elk pleaded guilty to child neglect and was sentenced to one and a half years in prison. But in February, Judge Daniel Borgen vacated the sentence and ordered that Black Elk get a new trial because of improper advice her attorney gave her when she entered a plea.

Donate to Cassi’s GoFundMe page now to support her and her daughters as she continues to pursue justice. All proceeds go directly to Cassi and her family.

‘Unreliable’: A medical examiner’s testimony led to a lucrative business, even as his cases kept falling apart

KSTP | May 11, 2023

5 INVESTIGATES started reviewing former Ramsey County Medical Examiner Michael McGee’s contracts earlier this year after a federal judge called out his “well-documented history of providing false or inaccurate testimony in court.”

Invoices and receipts show his company, M.B. McGee, collected more than $9 million from at least 19 counties dating back to 2011.  

Dr. McGee’s flawed testimony has been cited in two Great North Innocence Project clients’ cases as a contributing factor leading to their wrongful conviction, including Michael Hansen (pictured, right)

The Throughline

Ruthlessly Hopeful | March 31, 2023

Hope is essential to Sara Jones, the team she leads and their clients. Sara is the executive director of the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP). They work to free people who were wrongly convicted in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, and advocate to reduce the risk of wrongful convictions. It is hard and emotional work, and as Sara explained hope is the throughline.

Family of a man in prison for a murder nearly two decades ago is asking the Hennepin County Attorney to re-open the case

WCCO | March 16, 2023

Marvin Haynes was found guilty of killing 55-year-old Randy Sherer in his family's flower shop in north Minneapolis in 2004.

He has insisted over the years that he is innocent, and now his family has found new hope, as the Great North Innocence Project has taken up his case.

Innocence Project seeks to exonerate Marvin Haynes of 2004 north Minneapolis flower shop killing

Star Tribune | March 4, 2023

Nearly two decades ago, a robber shot 55-year-old Randy Sherer to death in his family's flower shop in north Minneapolis. The teenager convicted of the crime is now a man who has spent most of his life in prison, insisting he is innocent.

There was no physical evidence tethering Marvin Haynes, 35, to the shots that killed Sherer on May 16, 2004. The only person who saw everything unfold — Cynthia McDermid, Sherer's sister and coworker — died in 2020. Now the Great North Innocence Project has taken up Haynes' case.

After serving 25 years for murder he didn’t commit, Minnesota man reflects on case, ‘unreliable’ witness

KSTP | February 23, 2023

For nearly two decades, Thomas Rhodes sat in a prison cell for a murder he did not commit, replaying the key testimony that put him there. 

Rhodes was convicted in 1998 of murdering his wife in Kandiyohi County. 

In his first interview since being released from prison, Rhodes talked to 5 INVESTIGATES about the evidence that led to his conviction and the perseverance that set him free.

Minnesota Court of Appeals Upholds Lower Court’s Ruling Overturning Stearns County Man’s Murder Conviction

KNSI Radio | February 17, 2023

The Minnesota Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court’s ruling overturning the conviction of an Albany man wrongly accused of killing his infant son.

UND Chief pathologist: Black Elk sentence a ‘miscarriage of justice,’ state appeals judge’s order

KFGO | February 6, 2023

Attorneys for the State of North Dakota have appealed a judge’s order to throw out the criminal judgment and sentence of a woman who pled guilty to neglect in the death of her 3-week-old daughter in Bismarck last year.

The appeal comes even as court documents in the case show the infant’s autopsy found no evidence of foul play or trauma, and the head of a team of pathologists who reviewed the report said it showed “no criminality at any level,” and asked the court to correct a “miscarriage of justice.”

After 25 years, a Minnesota man’s conviction in the 1996 death of his wife has been overturned

KSTP | January 18, 2023

Thanks to work done by the Innocence Project, a nonprofit committed to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals, Minnesotan Thomas Rhodes is a free man after spending 25 years in jail.

Hayley Drozdowski-Poxleitner, from the Great North Innocence Project, joined News Talk 830 WCCO’s Jordana Green and Adam Carter to discuss Rhodes' case and his exoneration.

After over a decade of fighting, Minnesota group celebrates overturned murder conviction

KSTP | January 13, 2023

The Great North Innocence Project announced today that their client Thomas Rhodes will be released from Moose Lake Correctional Center after spending nearly 25 years in prison. His release is the result of a comprehensive review of his case by the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit (CRU), a partnership between the Great North Innocence Project ("GN-IP") and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. The CRU ultimately found that a miscarriage of justice occurred in Mr. Rhodes’ case.

The Great North Innocence Project celebrates client’s release from prison after Minnesota Conviction Review Unit’s investigation

Great North Innocence Project Press Release | January 13, 2023

The Great North Innocence Project announced today that their client Thomas Rhodes will be released from Moose Lake Correctional Center after spending nearly 25 years in prison. His release is the result of a comprehensive review of his case by the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit (CRU), a partnership between the Great North Innocence Project ("GN-IP") and the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. The CRU ultimately found that a miscarriage of justice occurred in Mr. Rhodes’ case.

For more coverage on Thomas Rhodes’ release check out stories from: the Associated Press, StarTribune, & Pioneer Press.

DOJ awards Minnesota-based advocacy group $500,000 for review of wrongful convictions

Minnesota Reformer | October 17, 2022

The U.S. Department of Justice awarded a $500,000 grant to a local advocacy group to investigate the legal cases of people who have been convicted of crimes but are believed to be innocent.