Marin Haynes is a free man.
Convicted in the shooting death of a man at a Minneapolis flower shop in 2005, a Hennepin County judge on Monday vacated the ruling. Judge William Koch signed a agreement between Haynes and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office saying a flawed investigation violated Haynes' rights. The Attorney's Office had stood by the conviction.
"I just wanna see my mom, go walking, I mean, just the simplest things," explained Haynes Monday. "When you go through something like this, the most simplest things. That's all that matters."
Haynes says he's grateful, and not bitter, about his decades behind bars despite trying to get his story out for 19 years.
Haynes' sister Marvina worked with the Great North Innocence Project to win his freedom.
"Evidence shows that Marvin did not commit that crime,' says Marvina. "The facts supporting his innocence are overwhelmingly strong, particularly related to the eyewitness. Everybody who testified in Marvin's case were teenagers, they (weren't) able to have their parents (there)."
The ruling paves the way for Haynes' release from Stillwater prison, where he was serving a life sentence for the death of Randy Sherer in 2004. Haynes was found guilty a year later. Now he will be released on Monday.
“Almost twenty years ago, a terrible injustice occurred when the state prosecuted Marvin Haynes," said Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. "We inflicted harm on Mr. Haynes and his family, and also on Harry Sherer, the victim, his family, and the community. We cannot undo the trauma experienced by those impacted by this prosecution, but today we have taken a step toward righting this wrong."
Haynes was 16-years old at the time of the killing. In his order, the judge noted that there was no physical evidence linking Haynes to the crime scene.
Prior to this ruling, Marvina says her family was trusting in the process that ultimately led to his freedom.
"I feel like the judge is a fair guy, but I don't, I'm not going to put all of my belief and power into a human being like myself, with the most high hope the truth shall prevail," she said.
“To Marvin Haynes: You lost the opportunity to graduate from high school, attend prom, have relationships, attend weddings and funerals, and be with your family during holidays," said Moriarty. "For that, I am so deeply sorry. And for that, I commit to correcting other injustices and to making sure that we do not participate in making our own.”
Randy Sherer and his sister were working at Jerry’s Flower Shop on May 16, 2004, when a young man walked in saying he wanted flowers for his mother’s birthday. Instead, he pulled out a revolver and demanded money and the security tapes.
Sherer emerged from the back, saying there was no money to take. His sister, Cynthia McDermid, fled as two shots rang out.
McDermid described the shooter to police as 19 to 22 years old with “close-cropped” hair. She looked at a photo lineup that didn’t include Haynes and said she was 75% to 80% certain one man pictured was the shooter. But that man had an alibi.
Two days later, police received a tip pointing to Haynes. A booking photo showed him with a long afro and, at 5-foot—7 (1.7 meters), far shorter than the described shooter.
Investigators showed McDermid a photo lineup that included a photo of Haynes. But rather than the recent mugshot, they used a photo from two years earlier showing him with short, close-cropped hair. McDermid pinned him as the shooter.
Detectives arranged an in-person lineup. McDermid and a middle school who claimed to have seen a man fleeing the flower shop each chose Haynes, with varying degrees of confidence.
Nancy Steblay, a retired professor emeritus of psychology at Augsburg University, said the police department’s lineup method was flawed and created a high risk of error. She wrote in a report that mistaken eyewitness identification was faulted for nearly 80% of wrongful convictions in the first 200 cases overturned by DNA evidence.
During the 2005 trial, prosecutors relied on testimony from several minors who claimed to have heard Haynes bragging about the killing, including Haynes’ cousin Isiah Harper, who was 14 at the time. Harper has since signed an affidavit recanting, saying officers threatened to send him to prison if he didn’t help corroborate their theories about the case.
“I was afraid,” said Harper, now 34 and incarcerated for aiding and abetting second-degree murder in an unrelated case.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.