It’s a stiff competition. Democratic Party prosecutors who have brought frivolous charges against Donald Trump are certainly in the mix. Nevertheless, I would award that title to Mary Moriarty, the County Attorney for Hennepin County, Minnesota. Hennepin is the state’s most populous county, and it includes Minneapolis along with a number of other high-crime towns. Nevertheless, Moriarty ran for office on a platform of not prosecuting criminals, and she is the rare politician who has kept her campaign promises.
The situation is so bad that it is now drawing national (the New York Post) and even international (the Daily Mail) attention. The Post headlines: “Fury as Minneapolis’ ‘woke’ DA Mary Moriarty allows accused rapists and killers to stay free.” The Daily Mail headlines: “Is this America’s wokest DA? Democrat Minneapolis prosecutor sparks fury by giving probation to murderers, pedophile and killer drug dealer, with even Soros-backed Minnesota AG blasting her.” I guess the headlines pretty much tell the story, but this is what it is all about:
Veteran prosecutor Catherine Markey was only told moments before a plea hearing that the DA was only seeking probation for one of the teens involved in the 2019 carjacking that killed her son, Stephen Markey.
This is really amazing. Even a prosecutor can’t get justice when her son is murdered.
Sherrice Barnett similarly recalled her horror at being told the teen charged with murdering her 27-year-old son, Derrell Freeman, would be spared a prison sentence.
“I couldn’t breathe,” she told the paper.
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Another mom, Nancy Caspersen, recalled her disgust at the repeat offender charged with the third-degree murder of her daughter, Kailey — for selling her the pain pills laced with fentanyl that killed her in 2021 — getting probation and up to 240 days in jail instead of the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
Tim Walz might be America’s most far-left governor, but even he may have had enough:
In April, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reassigned the case against the alleged murderers of mother of one Zaria McKeever to Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is backed by left-wing billionaire George Soros, the Star Tribune explained.
McKeever, 23, was killed in 2022 by two teen brothers hired by her ex-boyfriend, the outlet said.
While prosecutors initially wanted to try both boys as adults, they were offered probationary deals in exchange for testimony against McKeever’s ex.
The controversial arrangement prompted Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Leah Erickson to remove herself from the case, then leave the office entirely, the Star Tribune reported at the time.
Prosecutors are walking away because Moriarty won’t let them prosecute:
Similarly, the case of a 15-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted by a relative for three years prompted prosecutor Raina Urton to remove herself from the case after the new administration pushed her to seek probation instead of prison for the defendant, the outlet said.
“She walked away because she knows what happened was wrong,” the teen’s mother said of Urton.
“She was fighting for us. She was fighting for our daughter.”
What does County Attorney Moriarty have to say in her own defense? Well, she is doing what she promised voters she would do:
Moriarty says she plans to stick with her plan to bring reform…
“Reform.”
…to the DA’s office — dismissing the anger as the expected cost of change.
“I think it takes a lot of courage actually to act upon what you say you’re going to do,” she told the Star Tribune.
Beyond that, Moriarty peddles the familiar line that she is “following the science.”
[I]f you’re truly going to make change, if you truly are about your values, and you want to have integrity, and you believe in research and look at the data, these are the right decisions and I stand by them.”
What research and data justifies letting murderers and rapists go? She means the claim that a person’s brain doesn’t finish developing until he or she reaches the age of 25, so that people younger than that age can’t be held accountable for their actions. But of course, a high percentage of violent crime is committed by people aged less than 25. It doesn’t take a lot of research and data to know that if you don’t punish young violent offenders, it will be open season on law-abiding citizens.
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