Myon Burrell and the commuted murder sentence progressives hope you ignore

The Murder

In 2002, Myon Burrell, then 16 years old, went with two others in his gang to ambush and kill a rival gang member on the street in South Minneapolis. The bullets fired missed the intended target, but sadly pierced a nearby home and killed an 11-year-old girl, Tyesha Edwards, as she sat at her kitchen table doing homework.

Within days, police had developed probable cause to arrest Burrell and two of his fellow gang members for their involvement in the murder. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office subsequently charged the three with Edwards’ murder.

I summarized Burrell’s murder prosecution, conviction, and subsequent early release from prison in an article in the Winter 2024 edition of the Thinking Minnesota magazine.

“Over the course of several years, Burrell was tried and convicted by two separate district courts and had several appeals via the Minnesota Court of Appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court. At the end of this rigorous and exhaustive judicial process — during which Burrell had multiple opportunities for relief — the justice system stood resolved that Burrell was guilty and that justice required him to serve a minimum of 45 years to life in prison.

The county attorneys at the time of Burrell’s two trials were Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman. Both cited Burrell as an example of their tough-on-crime approach to law enforcement, so long as it was politically expedient.

Activists had been lobbying politicians for years calling for a re-examination of Burrell’s case. They also persuaded an Associated Press reporter to examine the case, which resulted in a lengthy investigative piece published in 2019 calling into question Burrell’s conviction, largely based on purported changes of heart by key witnesses years after the conviction.

Despite years of prominently defending and touting her role in Burrell’s conviction, Klobuchar appeared to reverse course with the political winds, calling for a re-investigation of the case in the midst of her 2019 candidacy for president.

Freeman reacted similarly, and while he has professed to never doubt Burrell’s guilt, he made an offer to the court to dismiss 15 years of Burrell’s sentence.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Governor Tim Walz went further. Ellison assembled a group to review Burrell’s case. This group recommended forming an official conviction review unit as they could not properly assess Burrell’s guilt or innocence. However, the group did offer a revealing opinion: ‘We concluded that no fundamental goal of sentencing is served by Burrell’s continued incarceration.’

The statement was what Ellison and Walz needed. In December 2020, they joined together as two-thirds of the Minnesota Board of Pardons (the Chief Justice abstained from voting) and commuted Burrell’s sentence to 20 years, with the final two years to be served under community supervision. Burrell walked out of Stillwater Prison that day.” 

The Commuted Sentence

During the Board of Pardons meeting that led to Burrell’s sentence commutation, Governor Walz stated:

“While this board is not a fact finder, it does have the power to determine when justice is served through the power of clemency and mercy. We cannot turn a blind eye to the developments in science and law as we look at this case.” 

“Mr. Burrell you’ve been granted commutation to your sentence of 20 years. The commissioner of corrections with work with you and your family immediately. I wish you the best.”

In response to Burrell’s commuted sentence, Tyesha’s older brother stated to the Associated Press:

“Her life was taken away at 11. Who’s the victim?”

Progressives were pleased that they had masterfully used the system to commute Burrell’s sentence. It was all part of their vision of “social justice” and “re-imagining” the criminal justice system. Burrell became the poster child for the new progressive movement aimed at undermining and overturning decades old convictions.

Once Burrell was released, Mary Moriarty, who ended up running for Hennepin County Attorney to replace Mike Freeman, hired Burrell to work on her campaign.

In January 2023, Attorney General Ellison’s new Conviction Review Unit formally took on Burrell’s case to consider fully exonerating Burrell. Then the wheels came off as Burrell’s true character began resurfacing.

True Character Emerges

On August 29, 2023, Burrell, who so many progressives had had held up as the victim of an unjust criminal justice system, was pulled over in Robbinsdale at 10:55 am for suspicion of driving under the influence. After failing a field sobriety test, he was arrested. A subsequent search of Burrell’s truck led to the seizure of a loaded Glock 9mm handgun with an extended magazine from the center console, and a variety of controlled substances in quantities consistent with drug distribution. His prior conviction made Burrell ineligible to possess firearms — a serious infraction which would likely result in a return to prison.

Burrell was recorded as he watched the officers search his vehicle from the backseat of the squad car. His utterances helped seal his fate:

                “F–k, F–k, F–k. They got the heat, F—-ing got the (inaudible).”

Burrell was charged with the weapon crime and the court placed a $100,000 bail on him. 

In stepped the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF), which was proudly supported by Vice President Harris. The MFF posted bond for Burrell in September 2023, and he was once again released from custody. 

Then, in May 2024, while out on bail for the weapon and drug charges, Burrell came under investigation of the Hennepin County Violent Offender Task Force (VOTF). VOTF had received information from a reliable informant that Burrell was continuing to sell controlled substances while armed near, of all places, 38^th and Chicago Ave — also known as George Floyd Square in Minneapolis. 

A Hennepin County judge issued a search warrant for Burrell, his truck, and his home. During the searches VOTF investigators recovered a small amount of methamphetamine from Burrell’s truck, and a suitcase containing over $60,000 in cash at his home. 

Burrell was again arrested and charged with possession of controlled substances. He again secured a bond of $100,000 and was quickly released from custody.

Last week Hennepin County Judge Kappelhoff found Burrell guilty of the 2023 possession of the firearm and drugs, as part of a rare Stipulated Evidence Trial. The terms of the stipulation route the case directly to the Minnesota Court of Appeals which will determine whether the traffic stop leading to Burrell’s arrest was legal.

If the Court of Appeals determines the arrest was constitutional, Burrell will face a mandatory minimum sentence of three years and could face up to 15 years in prison.

The May 2024 drug charge against Burrell remains pending. 

Of course, none of Burrell’s weapon and drug crimes should have been possible, had he remained in prison for the murder of an 11-year-old girl as originally sentenced.

Lessons Learned

Myon Burrell represents a failure of revisionist criminal justice policies being championed by progressive politicians in Minnesota and nationally. 

As I wrote in the Thinking Minnesota article:

“Throughout our state’s history, we have invested in and valued a robust and credible court system. That system has allowed for appeals that have merit. Those appeals go through an appropriate adversarial process where each side is represented, and an impartial group of judges make decisions based on the law — not emotion or public opinion.

Expanding the number of groups that now “re-investigate” cases that have already been adjudicated only serves to undermine the legitimacy and authority we have rightly bestowed upon our court system. These efforts are often fueled by emotion and take advantage of the misguided notion that it is appropriate to apply today’s morality and conventions to decisions made in the past.

The emotional aspect of these “re-investigations” leaves the results vulnerable to subjective whim rather than an established process based on fact, as does the tendency to give more credibility to new information than information vetted contemporaneously with the events of the case. These tendencies make for good theater, but they make for poor public policy in determining whether justice was appropriately meted out decades earlier.”

Has the Burrell experience woke our progressive politicians to their errors in judgement? It’s unlikely they would admit it, but let’s hope the light shone on this case makes future exercises to commute the sentences of and exonerate defendants in decades old murders far more difficult to carry out. True justice demands it.