MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office is suspending its Conviction Review Unit (CRU) after losing federal grant funding, with Attorney General Keith Ellison expressing disappointment over the decision.
Conviction Review Unit shut down
What they're saying:
"Current budget constraints do not allow the program’s costs to be absorbed without compromising other core responsibilities," Ellison told the FOX 9 Investigators on Wednesday. "It is disappointing that our federal government has decided to deprioritize identifying and correcting wrongful convictions."
What we know:
The CRU was one of only four such units in a state attorney general’s office when it began accepting applications in August 2021.
The program was initially funded by a $300,000 grant from the Department of Justice, awarded to the Great North Innocence Project and then granted to the CRU.
The grant was renewed two years later at $500,000, but a further renewal was denied.
History of Conviction Review Unit
The backstory:
Since the unit started, it has issued four public reports on convictions, with one of the biggest cases being Edgar Barrientos-Quintana.
Barrientos-Quintana was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson in 2008.
His conviction was vacated in November 2024 after spending 16 years behind bars.
The CRU released a report that called for Barrientos-Quintana's conviction to be vacated after a three-year investigation. CRU's report revealed evidence that was never presented to the jury and showed that inaccurate information was presented at trial.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty shared the following statement regarding the unit being shut down:
"The Attorney General’s Conviction Review Unit was a valuable partner to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, especially in the exoneration of Edgar Barrientos-Quintana in 2024.
"Our office is committed to investigating claims of wrongful convictions and remedying injustices in Hennepin County through our own Conviction Integrity Unit. With the CRU closing, it is imperative for other county attorney offices around the state take up similar work to ensure conviction integrity."
READ MORE: Minneapolis murder conviction vacated, Edgar Barrientos-Quintana set free.