Strib link. Locally written, the item notes -
Mary Moriarty, who sparred frequently with Freeman when she headed up the Hennepin County Public Defender's Office, said she is exploring a campaign for the county attorney job.
"People have lost trust in that office, if they ever had trust to begin with," Moriarty said. "Now more than ever people in our community need to be able to trust that people in charge of our institutions have the ability and vision to create meaningful change. People have the right to feel safe, and they don't feel safe right now. We have a system that is very expensive, it's costly, and it's not keeping people safe."
"We need a county attorney that is willing to invest in transformational change."
The Hennepin County Attorney's Office is the largest of its kind in the state, with 460 employees and the highest caseload.
Freeman's office has prosecuted some of the state's biggest cases, including the 2019 murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor in the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor's conviction was the first time in modern Minnesota history that an officer was convicted of an on-the-job killing.
[italics added] No cop prosecuted until it was a white woman who was wrongly killed, in unfortunate circumstances --- but she did not have a cop kneeling on her neck for eight minutes, the victim unconscious at some point during the uninterrupted kneeling. Ellison prosecuted that latter situation, the George Floyd murder. Two convictions, how many events, how many held the office over time?
Shameful, but trending better.
A former public defender holding the post would offer a breath of fresh air. A perspective wider than most DA types would be represented were that possibility to come true. The possibility has potential. Likely there will be multiple office seekers, each with a different perspective on the job and its priorities in today's world.