Expand / Collapse search
☰

Philip Vance files petition for exoneration in South St. Paul murder

By
Published  March 1, 2025 5:49pm CST
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 9

The Brief

    • Philip Vance is currently incarcerated at MCF-Rush City, serving a life sentence for first-degree murder.
    • In 2002, a Dakota County jury found Vance guilty of killing store clerk Khaled Al Bakri during an armed robbery at Sabreen’s Supermarket.
    • Now, more than 22 years later, Vance continues to try to get his conviction overturned.

RUSH CITY, Minn. (FOX 9) - An inmate at MCF-Rush City has entered a new stage in his fight to clear his name.

Philip Vance looks for exoneration

The backstory:

In 2004, Philip Vance was convicted of first-degree murder. Since then, he’s spent half of his life in the system, serving a life sentence for the 2002 killing of 25-year-old South St. Paul store clerk Khaled Al Bakri.

Al Bakri died during an armed robbery at Sabreen’s Supermarket.

However, Vance says he was not involved. This week, his attorney, Nico Ratkowski, filed a petition for post-conviction relief.

In court papers, they blame a corrupt police force, and recanted eyewitness statements, for Vance’s "wrongful conviction."

Now, Vance is asking a judge to give him a new evidentiary hearing, after the Metro Gang Strike Force was found responsible for widespread criminal misconduct.

"The world will see the truth. The state of Minnesota will see what the truth is," Vance said in a prison interview on Saturday. "This was a set-up and these were corrupt police."

"Everything that was said at trial against me was false and was a lie, and it was coerced by the Metro Gang Task Force," Vance continued. "This is real, police corruption is real, injustice is real."

FOX 9 reaches out to Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena

The other side:

In the court file, Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena has sent a letter to Vance’s judge, asking for 45 days to review the Attorney General’s Office conviction review unit's findings on this case, before responding to Vance’s petition.

As of Mar. 1, the AG’s investigation is still in progress. Keena did not respond to FOX 9’s request for comment on Saturday.

Crime and Public SafetySouth St. Paul