The Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who murdered an Australian woman in 2017, which likely resulted in a reduced prison sentence for eight years.
Wednesday’s decision overturned a February ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeal that upheld Mohamed Noor’s death sentence for Justine Ruszczyk Damond’s shooting in July 2017, Star Tribune reported.
Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in 2019 after being sentenced by a jury for third-degree murder and second-degree murder for shooting the unarmed yoga teacher he married while answering his 911 call about a possible sexual assault in an alley behind his house.
Noor was not convicted of the homicide offense, which means his case will now return to the district court to be convicted. He has already served more than 28 months for the murder conviction and could be eligible for supervised release by the end of the year if he receives the alleged four years for homicide, the Associated Press reported.
The sentence said that for a charge of third-degree murder, or “murder of a depraved mind,” the person’s mental state must show a “widespread indifference to human life,” which cannot exist because the actions of Noor were addressed to a single person.
“The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from the circumstances shown is that the appellant’s conduct was particularly directed at the person who was murdered and therefore the evidence is insufficient to uphold his conviction … for murder with a depraved mind, “according to the sentence. .
Wednesday’s revocation confirmed what Noor’s lawyers have been claiming since their trial.
A Noor lawyer argued that the depraved mental element was not fulfilled as the agent was performing his duties at the time and acted in a split second for fear that his partner’s life would be in danger, according to the newspaper.
“We could very much agree that Noor’s decision to fire a deadly weapon for the simple fact that it startled him was disproportionate and unreasonable,” the sentence said. “Noor’s conduct is especially worrying given the confidence that citizens should be able to place in our peacekeepers. But the tragic circumstances of this case do not change the fact that Noor’s conduct was directed particularly towards Ruszczyk.
Damond, an Australian citizen with two United States, died after calling 911 to report a possible rape near her Minneapolis home. Noor and another police officer answered the call when Damond approached the squad car to talk to Noor’s partner in the driver’s seat.
Noor testified at trial that he shot Damond because he heard a loud knock on the driver’s door and thought his partner’s life was in danger. Police were never able to conclude whether there had been a sexual assault in the woman’s neighborhood, NBC News reported.
Wednesday’s resolution was closely monitored for its possible impact on the third-degree murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, but he was also convicted of a more serious second-degree murder charge in the United States. death of George Floyd. The 45-year-old former police officer was sentenced in June to 22 and a half years in prison.
The ruling is also expected to affect the case against three other Minneapolis ex-officers awaiting trial for Floyd’s death, as prosecutors are unlikely to add charges of aiding and abetting third-degree murder against Tou Thao. , J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, in Associated Press.
A lawyer for Noor, meanwhile, praised the high court ruling, saying he hopes this will give more consistency during the charge decisions.
“We said from the beginning that it was a tragedy, but it wasn’t a murder, and now the Supreme Court agrees and recognizes it,” said attorney Caitlinrose Fisher.
With publishing cables