With the sisters of murder victim Jesse Mickelson standing behind her, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced that she believes the man convicted in Mickelson's death is innocent.
"And that he was convicted of a crime he did not do," Moriarty said. "We are supporting Edgar Barrientos-Quintana's request for exoneration."
The 18-year-old victim was caught in the middle of a drive-by shooting in October 2008.
Minneapolis Police, accompanied by cameras from A&E's The First 48, arrested Edgar Barrientos-Quintana. He was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder.
But the Attorney General Office's Conviction Review Unit took another look at the case and scrutinized eyewitness accounts that, unlike Barrientos, the killer was bald. In addition they looked again at Barrientos' alibi that south Minneapolis crime scene.
Mickelson's sisters apologized to Barrientos and his family.
"What's most important to me right now is that the judge sees it in favor of the attorneys here and the AG's office and releases him. Because I don't want anybody who isn't guilty of the crime to spend any more time than they need to," Tina Rosebear said.
One of the jurors who convicted him also spoke at the press conference off-camera.
"And I would not have made that decision had I known what I know now. But I wish I would have known that because we can't take back what we did," Sarah Wolf said.
Former prosecutor Susan Crumb still believes Barrientos is guilty. In a memo to Moriarty, Crumb wrote that the jury heard all about the alibi and hair length issues in the trial. She called the conviction review unit investigation a product of "confirmation bias."
Hilary Caligiuri also prosecuted the case when she was in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. Assistant Police Chief Chris Gaiters was one of the case's investigators in 2008.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara agreed.
"I am concerned that a convicted killer will be set free based on a reinterpretation of old evidence rather than the existence of any new facts," O'Hara said.
The next step will be for a judge to decide whether to vacate the conviction or not. Moriarty said they have not decided yet if they will be charging a different person with Jesse Mickelson's murder.