Minnesota Lawyer

A candid Q&A with Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, the House Judiciary’s rookie chair, who's a career prosecutor, a stalwart defender of equity and an opponent of racism, prejudice and privilege.

Minneapolis police are taught to restrain combative suspects with a knee on their back or shoulders if necessary but are told to “stay away from the neck when possible,” a department use-of-force instructor testified.

A dispute over wage theft and withheld sick time — and the repercussions from public comments made about those subjects — might be on its way to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a conviction, saying that to prove guilt of second-degree burglary, the state must prove that the burglar had a tool for the purpose of gaining access to money or property.

The Minneapolis police chief testified Monday that now-fired officer Derek Chauvin violated departmental policy in pinning his knee on George Floyd’s neck and keeping him down after Floyd had stopped resisting and was in distress.

In a decision with implications for the Derek Chauvin trial, the state Supreme Court has ruled that pattern jury instructions, long used by judges in third-degree depraved-mind murder cases, have been used in error.

Kneeling on the neck of someone who is handcuffed and in the prone position is “top-tier, deadly” force and should not be used, the head of the Minneapolis Police Department’s homicide division testified Friday at Derek Chauvin’s murder trial.

The “spark of life” doctrine, which is rare outside Minnesota, is controversial among defense attorneys and could complicate the trial.

Last week’s unanimous State v. Khalil opinion, written by state Supreme Court Justice Paul Thissen, name checks Rep. Kelly Moller’s House File 707 and lifts a passage directly from it.

Offenders could get out after serving half their time under the Minnesota Rehabilitation and Reinvestment Act.