A man convicted of a murder he didn’t commit was released from a Minnesota prison on Thursday after spending nearly 30 years behind bars.
Bryan Hooper Sr. was freed a day after District Court Judge Marta Chou vacated his first-degree murder conviction, which had been based on a false confession from a woman who has since admitted to committing the crime.
Hooper was accused of killing a woman whose body was found in a cardboard box inside her bedroom closet at her Minneapolis apartment on April 15, 1998.
The death of 77-year-old Ann Prazniak was ruled asphyxiation, and evidence showed she had died at least two weeks before her body was found.
Hooper — who admitted being in the apartment but denied any involvement in or knowledge of Prazniak’s death — was later convicted of premeditated murder, felony murder during a burglary and felony murder during a kidnapping. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of release after 30 years.
His conviction hinged on testimony from a woman, Chalaka Young, who told police she helped Hooper murder the victim and received a reduced sentence for cooperating with prosecutors.
But earlier this year, Young, who is “recently sober and religious,” experienced a crisis of conscience and came clean about the story, taking responsibility for the murder, according to the Great North Innocence Project, a legal nonprofit representing Hooper.
In a seven-page handwritten document dated July 19, Young admitted to killing Prazniak and lying on the witness stand.
The new evidence was presented to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit. On Aug. 12, Hooper’s attorneys filed a petition asking that his conviction be vacated.
Hooper was released Thursday morning from Stillwater Correctional Facility in Bayport and reunited with his children, with whom he planned to have a meal, said Hayley Poxleitner, a GNIP spokesperson.
“Today, the courts have affirmed what Bryan Hooper, his family, his loved ones and his advocates have always known: Mr. Hooper is an innocent man,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement. “It is our duty as prosecutors to hold the correct individuals responsible for their actions, and that duty demands that we acknowledge our mistakes and make things right as quickly as we can.”
