Excop appeals his conviction

MINNEAPOLIS — A prosecutor urged the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday to uphold the thirddegree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman who had called 911 in 2017, saying a reversal would make it impossible to prosecute other officers on the same charge.

But defense attorney Caitlinrose Fisher argued that the Minnesota Court of Appeals erred in February when it affirmed Mohamed Noor’s conviction. She argued that the language of Minnesota’s thirddegree murder statute, backed by case law, requires that a defendant’s actions be directed at more than one person, and that the law is meant for cases such as indiscriminate killings.

The state law defines thirddegree murder as “an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life.” A central dispute is whether “dangerous to others” must be read as plural, or if the fatal act can be directed at a single, specific person. The high court’s ultimate decision has repercussions for four other exofficers charged in the death of George Floyd, another highprofile police killing.

Hennepin County prosecutor Jean Burdorf told the justices that nearly all killings by officers are directed at a specific person. Noor testified in his 2019 trial that a loud bang on the squad car made him fear for his and his partner’s life, so he reached across his partner from the passenger seat and fired through the driver’s window, believing it was necessary to protect his partner’s life. His shot killed Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual U.S.Australian citizen engaged to a Minneapolis man, who had called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home.