The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the third-degree murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, who fatally shot a person who called 911 four years ago.
Noor was also convicted of second-degree murder for the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond on July 15, 2017, and that verdict still holds true.
The ex-officer will be convicted again only for the homicide sentence, as opposed to the 12-and-a-half-year sentence he was sentenced in 2019 for murder.
Noor is now looking at a sentence of 41 to 57 months for that minor sentence, a spokeswoman for the Hennepin County prosecutor’s office said.
If he has been given a four-year term for homicide, the ex-officer should be eligible to be released after serving two-thirds of that time and going free by the end of this year, the attorney general’s attorney said. Noor, Peter Wold.
Noor has been behind bars since he was convicted on April 30, 2019.
“I spoke to Mo this morning. It’s a relief, a great relief,” Wold told NBC News. “She has a young son and it’s time for them to reunite.”
The high court ruled that prosecutors failed to show that Noor had acted with a “depraved mind, without regard to human life,” which would be necessary for the conviction for third-degree murder.
This statute has always been used in cases where an accused is accused of endangering several people and of not addressing any individual, according to the court.
Prosecutors had argued that Noor fit that description because his fatal shot at Damond could also have injured the officer’s partner or a passing cyclist.
The court ruled that it was clear that Noor was only directed against the woman he killed.
“In summary, our precedent confirms that Noor is right in arguing that a person does not commit a murder of depraved mind when the person’s actions are directed at a particular victim,” according to Chief Justice Lorie Gildea’s opinion .
“The exclusion of individuals is simply another way of saying that the mental state of depraved mind murder is one of general malice.”
Damond had called 911 that night believing he heard a woman in his neighborhood being assaulted. When Damond came out to greet police, he surprised the officers who responded, Noor and his partner Matthew Harrity, officers said.
Noor fired a shot and killed the innocent 911 caller Damond. Police were never able to conclude that there had been an assault in the Damond neighborhood.
Hennepin County Attorney Michael O. Freeman said his prosecutors are “disappointed” by Wednesday’s ruling, but “respect and recognize that the Minnesota Supreme Court is the final arbiter in this matter.”
“His conviction (homicide) was fair,” Freeman said in a statement. “The case has been referred to the trial court for sentencing and we will seek the maximum possible sentence.”
The chief judge said the court and prosecutors agree that “Noor’s decision to fire a deadly weapon for the simple fact that startled him was disproportionate and unreasonable.”
“Noor’s conduct is especially troubling given the confidence that citizens should be able to place in our peacekeepers,” Gildea wrote. “But the tragic circumstances of this case do not change the fact that Noor’s conduct was directed particularly towards Ruszczyk.”
The city of Minneapolis agreed to a $ 20 million deal with the woman’s family. She was a dual citizen of the United States and Australia.