Minnesota, in particular the Twin Cities metro area, experienced a wave of carjackings beginning in 2020. This was a new phenomenon, and Minnesota had never had a statute directed specifically at carjacking. It had been prosecuted as simple robbery. Under constituent pressure, the legislature enacted a new law in 2023 that for the first time defined a crime of carjacking. In response to citizen pressure mobilized by Center of the American Experiment–that is what the Star Tribune and Minnesota Public Radio reported–the state’s Sentencing Guidelines Commission followed up by adopting severe penalties for the new crime.
So what happened? My colleague David Zimmer tells the story in tomorrow’s Star Tribune. Basically, a single left-wing prosecutor has frustrated the will of the legislature and endangered Minnesota’s citizens by refusing to prosecute carjacking cases:
The new law and enhanced penalties offered county attorneys and the courts a significant tool to incapacitate violent offenders.
For that to occur, however, justice officials needed to make use of the new statute and enhanced penalty, not avoid them. Unfortunately, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office under Mary Moriarty and the Hennepin County District Court have failed to utilize the statute or impose an enhanced penalty as intended. …
I’ve analyzed data from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO), the Hennepin County District Court and the Minnesota Department of Corrections. The analysis focused on carjacking incidents, prosecutions and sentences in Hennepin County during the entire first year that the new carjacking statute and enhanced penalties were in place.
The data is deeply troubling. It shows that virtually no one is being prosecuted, convicted or sentenced in Hennepin County consistent with the new carjacking statute and enhanced penalties.
In the case of Hennepin County, which is shockingly home to 81% of the state’s entire number of carjackings, 87% of the state’s armed carjackings and 73% of the state’s carjackings resulting in injury, the county attorney and courts have consistently failed to make proper use of the powerful new carjacking statute and enhanced penalties.
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During the first full year the new carjacking statute was on the books, there were 349 carjacking incidents reported in Hennepin County. Of those, 105 were submitted to the HCAO for charging consideration.The HCAO charged 14 people in adult court for crimes involving carjacking elements — just seven were charged using the new carjacking statute. Ultimately, just one of those defendants was convicted in Hennepin County District Court of carjacking (most were allowed to plead guilty to a lesser offense, some were dismissed, and two were subsequently prosecuted federally). The one Hennepin County convicted carjacker received a 90-day sentence to the Hennepin County workhouse and a guarantee to reduce his conviction to a misdemeanor upon successful completion of probation.
So a left-wing prosecutor has effectively negated the will of the people as reflected in the law passed by their elected representatives. Liberals love to talk about the rule of law, but in reality they believe only in the rule of their own political biases.
