MINNEAPOLIS — A man who spent nearly 20 years behind bars is asking the state of Minnesota for $2 million to make up for that lost time after his murder conviction was vacated.
Marvin Haynes and his attorneys filed a claim with the Minnesota State Supreme Court on Nov. 7, maintaining he was wrongfully arrested, convicted and incarcerated in 2005 for a murder he did not commit. He was just 16 years old at the time he was convicted.
Haynes was exonerated and released from prison in Dec. 2023, meaning he spent more than 19 years imprisoned for a crime both Haynes and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office say he did not commit. On the day it was announced that Haynes would be released, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty apologized to him, saying his civil rights were violated in the 2005 trial and that securing his freedom would be "a step toward righting this wrong."
“It is not easy to admit and correct our wrongs but it is necessary,” Moriarty said in a news conference. "To Marvin Haynes: You lost the opportunity to graduate from high school, to attend prom, have relationships, attend weddings and funerals and spend time with your family around the holidays. I’m so deeply sorry for that."
In his claim for damages, Haynes and his legal team note that on Sept. 12, 2024, the Hennepin County District Court issued an order finding that Haynes is eligible for compensation. His attorneys say state statutes dictate that Haynes is entitled to damages "of not less than $50,000 for each year of incarceration" and additional monies based on economic damages, medical expenses, physical or non-physical injuries or sickness resulting from his incarceration plus expenses for education, housing and transportation as he tries to rebuild his life.
"His noneconomic damages include, but are not limited to, nearly 20 years of loss of liberty, past and future severe mental anguish, emotional distress and psychological damage; loss of familial relationships; loss of reputation; physical pain and suffering; humiliation, indignities and embarrassment; permanent loss of natural psychological development; and loss of enjoyment of life as a result of restrictions on all forms of personal freedom including diet, sleep, personal contact, personal fulfillment, sexual activity, family relations, reading, television, movies, travel, enjoyment and expression," his attorneys asserted in the claim.
Based on those alleged damages, Marvin Haynes is asking the State of Minnesota for $100,000 for each year of his incarceration, a total of nearly $2 million.
Haynes was convicted in Sept. 2005 for the murder of 55-year-old Harry "Randy" Sherer, the owner of a flower shop in north Minneapolis. After a jury found Haynes guilty, he reportedly said out loud in the courtroom, "I didn't kill that man!"
"Marvin has proclaimed his innocence since day one," said his sister Marvina Haynes said in Nov. 2023 as the effort to overturn Haynes' murder conviction reached its conclusion. "There's nothing linking Marvin to the crime scene. The evidence — they don't have any."
The Minneapolis-based Great North Innocence Project led Haynes' legal challenge for post-conviction relief, arguing in court filings that the original trial relied on "false evidence" from witnesses and "constitutionally defective eyewitness identification evidence."
Haynes' attorneys claim that important eyewitness testimony in the case "should have been suppressed because it was the result of highly suggestive identification techniques and was wholly unreliable." There was no physical evidence linking Haynes to the murder.
Police and prosecutors who worked the case still believe Marvin Haynes was the person who killed Harry Sherer. Former Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Mike Furnstahl, who served as the lead prosecutor during the 2005 trial, said suggestions of Haynes' innocence are "really a joke."
"The reason this case is coming back now is not because there's substantial and compelling evidence that Marvin Haynes is innocent, but rather because political winds are blowing in his favor," said Furnstahl, who was also the prosecutor in the Myon Burrell case.
"If the judge grants the petition for post-conviction relief, I would make sure the Hennepin County Attorney's Office files an appeal on it. I wouldn't let them just stand by and let this guy walk out of prison. Because [Haynes] murdered that man. There was no question in my mind. There was no question in the jurors' minds."