This browser does not support the Video element.
Marvin Haynes files federal lawsuit
Marvin Haynes is filing a federal wrongful conviction lawsuit after his murder conviction was vacated – setting him free last year. FOX 9’s Babs Santos has the latest from the Live Center.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Marvin Haynes filed a wrongful imprisonment lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday after spending nearly two decades behind bars for a murder he did not commit.
Wrongful imprisonment lawsuit
Federal lawsuit filed:
Haynes was arrested and convicted in the 2004 murder of Randy Sherer outside a Minneapolis flower shop when he was 16 years old. After spending nearly two decades behind bars, his conviction was vacated in 2023.
In a federal court document released on Wednesday, Haynes and his attorneys filed a lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis, Sgts. David Mattson, Michael Keefe Patrick King, Gerhard Wehr and Lt. Michael Carlson for their alleged roles in his wrongful imprisonment.
This browser does not support the Video element.
'I am Innocent': The Marvin Haynes Story
The true crime documentary details how a 16-year-old boy was convicted of murder after a flower shop robbery in Minneapolis. Marvin Haynes was exonerated nearly twenty years later when eyewitness testimony, and the police investigation itself, started to unravel. A DOC 9 production.
What they're saying:
Speaking with FOX 9 on Wednesday, Haynes said: "Funds could never make up for an experience. You only get one life and anytime someone passes away, you’re not taking nothing with you. I would love to have my teenage years back. I would love to have my life back. Nothing financially, or nothing that anybody can do for me, can make up for my life being stolen like that."
"Honestly, my family is still traumatized. I didn’t even understand the effect that it takes on families," he added.
"Defendants’ unlawful actions caused Marvin Haynes to spend nearly 20 years, including the end of his childhood and all of his young adulthood, incarcerated for a crime he did not commit," the lawsuit reads. "Haynes spent his days worrying about his safety and fighting to prove his innocence, isolated from the people who cared for him, and forced every day to confront the terror of carrying a life sentence for a crime he did not commit."
The lawsuit continues, in part, "As a direct result of Defendants’ intentional, bad faith, willful, wanton, reckless, and/or deliberately indifferent acts and omissions, Haynes sustained injuries and damages, including but not limited to the following: loss of freedom; pain and suffering; physical injuries; severe mental anguish; emotional distress; loss of family relationships; severe psychological damage; humiliation, indignities, and embarrassment; degradation; permanent loss of natural psychological development; loss of income; and restrictions on all forms of personal freedom."
The lawsuit is requesting the court award compensatory and punitive damages to Haynes, which would be determined at a trial. The full lawsuit can be read in the document below.
Marvin Haynes conviction and release
This browser does not support the Video element.
Marvin Haynes reflects on long journey to freedom
Sunday marks a troubling anniversary for Marvin Haynes. On this day, 20 years ago, Minneapolis police arrested Haynes for a murder he insisted he never committed. Two decades later, Haynes is now a free man and fully exonerated after he was released from prison last December.
The backstory:
Sherer was murdered during a robbery at Jerry’s Flower Shop in Minneapolis on May 16, 2004. Haynes, just 16, was arrested days later based on eyewitness testimony. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime.
In the end, there were no fingerprints, no DNA, no surveillance video, and no murder weapon tying Haynes to the slaying. Despite his insistence he had nothing to do with Sherer’s murder, a jury found Haynes guilty of first-degree murder and second-degree assault, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Related timeline: Marvin Haynes walked out of prison 1 year ago. His exoneration led to change.
In June 2023, Haynes and the Great North Innocence Project filed a petition to have his conviction vacated due to "defective eyewitness identification evidence." In December of that year, a Hennepin County judge vacated the conviction because of "unconstitutional" eyewitness testimony. Haynes was released from Stillwater prison that same day.
In 2024, Haynes filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County requesting $100,000 for each of the 19 years he was wrongfully incarcerated. It's unclear whether Haynes will continue with the state lawsuit given the new case in federal court.