A man accused of killing a prominent legislator in Minnesota and another injury could face something rare for Minnesot, but under Trump’s administration he could become more common: the death penalty.
Minnesota canceled the death penalty in 1911 and the last execution of the state was suspended in 1906.
For the state and federal prosecutors, it is not heard that both of them to carry out criminal cases for the same crime, especially in high -ranking matters.
In this case, the federal authorities essentially grabbed the leadership of the prosecutor, the district representative of Hennepin Mary Moriarta. Boelter was scheduled for his first court fees on Monday, but instead Marshales took him from the district prison to the American court building in St Paul, where he appeared on a more serious federal accusation.
Boelter is accused of mortal shooting of the former spokesman of the democratic house Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their house early on Saturday in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis. Previously, the authorities say that he also shot and injured another Democrat, Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette, who lived a few kilometers away. On Sunday evening he gave up Sunday after the authorities called the biggest search in Minnesota history.
Two of the six federal numbers can bear the death penalty, something that federal prosecutors in the case of the Supreme Court in 1976 did not renew in the case of Minnesota, because in 1976 he restored the death penalty.
“Will we be looking for a death penalty? Is it too early to say. This is one of the possibilities,” said US lawyer Joseph Thompson on Monday at a press conference where he revealed new details about what he described as a carefully planned attack. They included the accusation that Boelter had stopped two other legislators that night and had dozens of other democrats as potential goals, including officials in other countries.
The federal defenders of Boelter refused to comment on the case and did not enter the request.
On the first day of February in February, the Pam Bondi General Prosecutor raised the moratorium to federal executions, which was deposited in 2021 in 2021. After Biden transferred 37 of his prison sentences.
Since then, Bondi has been entiting the federal prosecutor to seek death in three cases, including Luigi Mangione for killing the General Director of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson. In the other two cases, the Ministry of Justice stated that it was looking for a death penalty against the accused of killing prisoners for prison.
President Donald Trump’s first administration made 13 federal executions, which is more than the administration of any other president in modern history.
The federal intervention in Boelter’s case seemed to be irritated by Moriarta, the former main public lawyer of the region, who was elected in 2022 on the police reform and the racial justice platform after police killing George Floyd.
At a press conference on Monday, which announced state fees, Moriarts provided only vague answers to questions about the interplay between federal and state investigation. However, she acknowledged, “There is tension” and stated that federal officials “can speak for themselves”.
Moriarty said she intended to assert himself in the State Court, regardless of the accusation for the murder of the first instance for killing Hortmans, which would have a compulsory punishment of life without conditional release. Her office did not answer immediately to the request for another comment on Tuesday.
As evidence of tension, the regional lawyer refused to clarify how Boelter’s first hearing would have happened. Judicial records show that Boelter was invited on Monday for the first appearance in the Hennepin region and that he was not there because he was in federal custody, the judge issued a bench as a formality.
“Usually, the murder cases are tremendously dealt with in state courts,” said Mark Osler, an expert on the death penalty at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. “It is obvious that this is something that is national interest. And it seemed to play a role in the decision made by the Ministry of Justice.”
Osler, who previously worked as a representative of the Moriarta Region and the head of her criminal division, as well as an assistant to an American lawyer in Detroit, acknowledged that there was often tension between the state and the federal prosecutors.
“There is no doubt that it is complicated,” Osler said. “And it is difficult to avoid the feeling of an older sibling who grabbed something from a younger sibling.”
If federal officials strive for the death penalty, Osler said, they will face an unusual challenge: “The jury from the citizens of the state who refused the death penalty will be the same as the selection of people in the state where there is a death penalty like Texas.”
After his performance of the federal court, Boelter was taken to the Sherburne County in the suburban ELK, where federal prisoners are often held.
Thompson told reporters that the federal case “will not cancel state fees. They remain in place. … My expectations based on previous cases are a federal case, federal accusation, will be court proceedings, but state fees are nowhere left.”
Boelter’s next performance of the Federal Court is 27 June. He has no further appearances in the State Court.
“There is sometimes natural competitiveness among jurisdictions, but you have to hope that in the end everyone is facing the same way that something as important to public security is as the case,” Osler said.
(Tagstotranslate) Vance Boelter (T) Minnesota Lawmaker Killings (T) Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman (T) Sen. John Hoffman and wife Yvette
