Backlash over bid to cut Minneapolis murder sentence in 2011 gang killing
Hennepin County's request to reduce a life sentence in a 2011 Minneapolis gang murder has drawn sharp criticism from the victim's father and both candidates for county attorney.
Bid to shorten life sentence for 2011 gang murder sparks furore in Hennepin County
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office is facing significant pushback after petitioning a court to reduce the life sentence of Kemen Taylor II, convicted for his role in the 2011 murder of 13-year-old Ray'Jon Gomez in north Minneapolis, mprnews.org reports.
Both candidates seeking to replace incumbent County Attorney Mary Moriarty have publicly condemned the move — despite one of them having co-sponsored the very law that makes such requests possible.
The case behind the petition
In August 2011, Taylor, then 25, drove two teenagers — Derrick Catchings, 15, and Donquarius Copeland, 16 — through rival gang territory in north Minneapolis. Taylor's brother had recently been shot in the arm. After spotting someone they believed to be a rival, the two teens exited Taylor's van and opened fire on three boys riding bikes. Ray'Jon Gomez was killed; another boy was wounded. Taylor drove the pair away from the scene.
Catchings and Copeland pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and each received 34-year sentences with the possibility of probation. Catchings has since died in prison. Taylor rejected a plea deal that would have made him eligible for supervised release after 13 years. He went to trial, was convicted of first-degree murder, and received a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
The county's argument
Taylor subsequently applied to have his case reviewed by Hennepin County's conviction integrity unit. The unit determined he was eligible for a sentence reduction. In its petition, the county argued that Taylor was effectively penalised at trial for declining the plea deal, and that his sentence did not accurately reflect his level of culpability.
Andrew Markquart, hired by Moriarty to lead the conviction integrity unit, wrote in the petition that since Taylor's trial, the office had "taken a more cautious approach to indictments on first-degree premeditated murder charges because such charges carry a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of release."
"The facts in this case do not satisfy the current standard," Markquart added.
A spokesperson for Moriarty's office said that if a 13-year sentence — the one originally offered in the plea deal — was considered sufficient to protect the public, then "life without parole is by definition a disparity requiring correction." The petition requests a modified sentence of 312 months, roughly 26 years.
The law enabling the request
The petition relies on a 2023 Minnesota law that allows prosecutors to seek sentence reductions when "substantial and compelling reasons" exist to do so. Hennepin County began accepting applications under the prosecutor-initiated sentence adjustment, or PISA, framework in early 2024. A separate conviction integrity unit, set up in late 2024, reviews claims that an innocent person was convicted or that a serious miscarriage of justice occurred.
According to the county, around 250 people have applied to the conviction integrity unit and more than 400 have applied for sentence adjustments. Fewer than ten cases have resulted in relief overall, two of which were full exonerations.
Victim's father and candidates speak out
Ray'Jon Gomez's father, Kevin Funchie, told the Star Tribune the county's petition was "sickening" and said having his son's murder relitigated had been devastating for him and his family.
Following Funchie's comments, both candidates running in the race to succeed Moriarty publicly rejected the county's petition, while each said they still support the existence of the conviction integrity unit.
DFL-endorsed state Rep. Cedrick Frazier of New Hope, who co-sponsored the PISA legislation while serving in the Minnesota House, said the case represented a misapplication of the statute. "As a former member of the Public Safety Committee in the Legislature that passed the Prosecutor-Initiated Sentence Adjustment legislation, this is not the way this statute was intended to be used," Frazier said in a statement. He added that presenting cases of this kind "can retraumatize victims and does not serve the best interest of public safety," citing his own experience as a survivor of gun violence.
Anders Folk, former acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota and Frazier's opponent in the race, called the county's petition an example of "when ideology runs roughshod over justice." Folk argued that multiple factors — including Taylor's age at the time and his continued denial of guilt — contributed to the length of the sentence. "Accountability matters," Folk said.
Taylor was prosecuted under Moriarty's predecessor, Mike Freeman. The county's petition acknowledges the case would have been handled differently under Moriarty's leadership, but critics argue that framing shifts prosecutorial discretion into retroactive sentencing intervention. The matter now rests with a judge, whose ruling is pending.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)