In Brief
- The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed denial of James Green‘s petition to vacate felony murder convictions.
- Green sought relief under a 2023 Minnesota law narrowing aiding-and-abetting liability for felony murder.
- The court found sufficient evidence that Green intended to aid the killings during a 2004 St. Paul shooting.
- Justices rejected claims involving circumstantial evidence standards, witness credibility and alleged constitutional violations.
A Minnesota man convicted of felony murder sought to have his conviction vacated by a pathway created in 2023. However, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s denial of relief.
On Jan. 12, 2004, a shooting in St. Paul killed two people and seriously injured another. Law enforcement arrested James Green and two other men, and a grand jury indicted Green on six charges including first-degree felony murder and attempted murder under aiding-and-abetting theories. Green pleaded not guilty, and the case proceeded to a two-week jury trial.
The jury found Green guilty on all six counts. The district court sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences for the first-degree felony murder counts. It also sentenced him to a concurrent 240-month sentence for attempted felony murder…