Ex-cop’s murder verdict reversed in Australian woman’s death
September 15, 2021 11:20AM CDT
FILE – In this June 7, 2019 file photo, former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor walks to the podium to be sentenced at Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, reversed the third-degree murder conviction of Noor who fatally shot an Australian woman in 2017, saying the charge doesn’t fit the circumstances in this case. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP, Pool File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court has reversed the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed an Australian woman in 2017. Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. But he appealed the murder conviction, saying the charge was meant for cases in which a defendant’s actions are directed at more than one person. The court’s ruling Wednesday could give Derek Chauvin grounds to appeal his third-degree murder conviction in George Floyd’s death, but that would have little tangible impact since Chauvin was also convicted of the more serious count of second-degree murder.
