Minn. to free man serving life in child’s 2002 death
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s pardon board on Tuesday freed a Black man who was sent to prison for life as a teen in a high-profile murder case that raised questions about the integrity of the criminal justice system that put him away.
Myon Burrell’s case made headlines earlier this year after The Associated Press and American Public Media uncovered new evidence and serious flaws in the police investigation into the 2002 killing of an 11-yearold girl who was hit by a stray bullet while doing homework at her dining room table.
Last week, an independent panel of national legal experts recommended his immediate release after reviewing the facts and all of the available evidence.
Burrell went before the Minnesota Board of Pardons with a request for a pardon and commutation. He said the request “is not in any way, shape or form me trying to minimize the tragedy of the loss of” Tyesha Edwards. “I come before you, a 34-year-old man who spent more than half of his life incarcerated for a crime I didn’t commit.”
The board commuted his sentence to 20 years, with the remainder to be served on supervised release. He was expected to be released from the state’s Stillwater prison Tuesday night. The board did not pardon Burrell.
A unanimous vote is normally required by the governor, attorney general and the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea has recused herself from the decision.
“While this board is not a fact finder, it does have the
power to determine when justice is served through the power of clemency and mercy,” said Gov. Tim Walz, who recommended the commuted sentence.
Burrell was 16 when he was sentenced in the killing of Tyesha, a Black sixth grader who was shot through the heart inside her family’s south Minneapolis home. He always maintained his innocence, and another man has confessed to being the shooter.
Mr. Walz addressed the Edwards family during the hearing, saying: “We’re not here to relitigate the crime committed against your family that took your daughter away. There is nothing I can do to ease your pain, and it will not be made better. But we must act today to recognize the law in this area has changed. Justice is not served by incarcerating a child for his entire lifetime for a horrible mistake committed many years ago.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who was the city’s top prosecutor at the time of the killing, has used Burrell’s conviction throughout her political career to tout her record of being tough on crime. She raised it again last year on the stage of the Democratic presidential primary
debate.
The AP’s yearlong investigation, however, showed there was no hard evidence — no gun, DNA or fingerprints — tying Burrell to the shooting.
Among other things, police did not collect a corner store’s surveillance video, which Burrell said could have cleared him. And video footage showed the lead homicide detective offering a man in police custody $500 for Burrell’s name, even if it was just hearsay.
New questions about Burrell’s case surfaced just before Minneapolis was thrust into the national spotlight after a police officer held his knee against George Floyd’s neck outside a convenience store as Floyd gasped for breath. It was the same Cup Foods store that Burrell said could have provided his alibi if surveillance tapes had been pulled.
Floyd’s death sparked racial injustice protests and put renewed focus on some law enforcement practices from the 1990s and early 2000s, when harsher policing and tougher sentencing led to the highest lock-up rates in the nation’s history. Those incarcerations hit Black and brown communities the hardest.