South Saint Paul, MN — “I just want the world to know that I am innocent,” said Philip Vance from a prison phone. Volunteers with the Free Philip Vance team braved frigid temperatures to hold a press conference on the 22nd anniversary of the robbery-turned-murder in a St. Paul suburb for which Vance was convicted and is now serving a life sentence.

Maintaining his innocence from day one, Vance has been incarcerated since 2004 after being convicted based on testimony by informants who have since recanted, saying they were coerced by corrupt police officers in the disbanded Metro Gang Strike Force. One informant was the sister of an investigating officer. After 12 years of ruthless operations, the Gang Strike Force was shut down in 2009 following federal investigations that found police exercising criminal behavior.

The press conference took place at the South St. Paul intersection near the location where Sabreen’s Supermarket once stood and where Khaled Al-Bakri, a 25-year-old store clerk, was killed on December 22, 2002. Calling in to the press conference from Minnesota Correctional Facility-Rush City, Vance held 22 seconds of silence for Al-Bakri before claiming his innocence for the murder, speaking about his long-anticipated exoneration and calling back for a question and answer session. Listen to Vance’s initial statement in the audio player below.

The presser was hosted by MissNikki Holliday, an advocate for the wrongfully convicted who joined the team to free Philip Vance two years ago after being introduced to his case by Jason Sole, a formerly incarcerated abolitionist, criminal justice educator and co-founder of Humanize My Hoodie.

Sole spoke for Vance along with formerly incarcerated restorative justice abolitionist, David Starks. Both shared personal experiences of being profiled by the Gang Strike Force in similar ways that Vance was and both called for his release. Starks said if the jury knew about the corrupt actions of the Gang Strike Force at the time of the 2004 trial, Vance would have never been convicted.

Vance has attempted to prove his innocence and has continuously appealed in the courts despite being ruled against in each filing. In 2006, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed his 2004 conviction. The next year, his petition for post-conviction relief was denied by the District Court and affirmed by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In 2008, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus was denied in federal court and several petitions for post-conviction relief have been denied over the years.

Jason Sole said during one of the denials that Justice Alan Page gave the team “a blueprint” of how to get Vance out and they were following that. Vance’s legal team is planning to file another petition for post-conviction relief this month and release new evidence in the case. Vance has gotten past support from the Innocence Project and submitted an application to the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) a few years ago.

Philip Vance wrote a letter to Unicorn Riot in 2023 when he was in MCF-Stillwater and explained his case as such:

“In 2003 an informant for the now-dismantled Metro Gang Strike Force was asked to wear a wire and distribute incriminating conversation with me that connected me to a murder two weeks prior. The CI was also asked to purchase a firearm with the hopes it would be the weapon used in the murder.

A year later I was charged with 1st degree murder. Eight months later at trial, this CI told a jury that she purchased a gun from me that tested to NOT be the murder weapon. She also testified that I made statements that I had in fact shot someone two weeks prior “over south” (the victim was killed in South St. Paul). Five to six MGSF/ATF/SPPD officers testified also that they were listening/recording these two meetings and that they heard the same incriminating statements. But because of the music where we were, they were unable to record the conversation???

This testimony, along with the testimony of one of the police’s sister and six jail house informants, I was convicted and sentenced to a life sentence. 17 years later, the CI that the MGSF used, now admits her testimony, as well as the officer’s testimony was false.

She now says they told her what to say and that in return they dismissed charges she was facing, as well as funded her relocation from Minnesota. Two of the six jailhouse informants have recanted that their testimony was false at trial also. Time reductions were the incentive. A female witness testified that she was threatened to testify, so she lied. Those recantations are ALL significant because in 2010, Andrew Luger and John Egelhof launched a federal investigation in the Metro Gang Strike Force and found that as a unit they were corrupt and “rogue.” “Criminal” was even used to describe their actions. Those SAME officers testified at my trial and lied. Those same officers coerced, threatened, and manipulated witnesses to lie against me, which led to my wrongful conviction and incarceration. I’ve been incarcerated now 20-plus years.”

Philip Vance, says he was wrongfully sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn’t commit

When he got arrested, Vance was new to Minnesota from Florida and just finding his way, said Sole, He “was a young Black kid here and they snatched him up.” Without family in the area and lacking a support network and proper legal advocacy, Vance was easier to set up for the murder.

Sole became aware of Vance’s case seven years ago and a friendship ensued after meeting him. Since then he has helped build a solid team of volunteers and legal support for Vance over the years. Sole said Vance was an amazing person, artist and father of three beautiful kids — two daughters and a son aged 21, 22, and 23.

While calling in during the press conference, Vance said that “being supported feels amazing.” In the past he had told his story to a lot of people and “nobody could connect the dots and see what I was trying to tell them. Nobody believed me,” he said. That was until he talked with Jason Sole, who read his story and believed him. “Ever since then, things took off,” Vance said.

A fundraiser to support legal costs for Vance is active online and as of January 8 had raised 84% of the $50,000 goal. The court petition will likely be reviewed by Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena, who had previously denied Vance’s filings. Vance said during the press conference that he would want the Dakota County Attorney’s Office to “just look at the facts. Look at the evidence gathered. Look at what was presented back then when I went to trial and look at what has been gathered today. I lot of truth has come to the light.”

Full exoneration is the goal for team Free Philip Vance. Vance was present and a part of Myon Burrell’s fight to get released from his life sentence after being wrongfully accused of a 2002 Minneapolis murder. He was in the same unit as Marvin Haynes and witnessed his successful fight for exoneration from a 2004 Minneapolis murder and said that gives him hope as he continues to stay positive while locked away awaiting the process.

Vance said being given his freedom and another chance at life would be “glorious.” He wants to give back to the community and “be a beacon of light, of hope, for people who don’t have that.”

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Department of Corrections Retaliated Against Vance for Large-Scale Protest in Stillwater Prison

Philip Vance has mentored many men in the prison system with his calm and positive energy. He’s currently residing in MCF-Rush City after being transferred last year from MCF-Stillwater, where he was housed for 19 years.

His transfer was part of a retaliatory measure by the Department of Corrections (DOC). During a heat wave in September 2023, 130 inmates in MCF-Stillwater’s B East section protested over inhumane living conditions like a lack of clean drinking water and excessive staff-induced lockdowns. Vance spoke with press over the phone. The protest drew international news and the DOC then doled out consequences to inmates they felt were responsible for the protest.

Vance told Unicorn Riot in a letter that he was viewed by the administration as the “orchestrator of the “peaceful protest,” and was found “guilty of inciting, unlawful assembly, protest and riot.” Vance was forced to serve half a year in segregation and then was transferred. Writing to UR about the retaliation shortly after the events, Vance said:

“I’m currently in the segregation unit of the facility for the September 3rd ‘peaceful protest’ I participated in here at Stillwater. I was the voice for the people. The news played my explanation of the events that were occurring inside the facility. And because my voice went nationwide, the administration decided to give me 6 MONTHS in segregation. I did nothing more than the other 130 participants who only received minimal discipline. No one was hurt, harmed, or threatened. Nothing was broken or destroyed.

I advised guys that we were only making a point, and that there was no need for destruction. The administration took my stance as being the orchestrator of the ‘peaceful protest,’ and found me guilty of inciting, unlawful assembly, protest and riot.

I witnessed guys who have been in 10 man fights (riots), offender assaults, staff assaults, and they receive less time than I have. A guy on my wing was found guilty of attempted murder, great bodily harm for the stabbing he committed against the man convicted of killing his sister. They originally offered me 220 days. His offer was 250 days!! Clearly this is retribution for my participation in the protest that was aired for a week on every news outlet here in Minnesota.

My 20-year review before the review board is in Jan. 2024 and I’ll be seen in seg attire and handcuffed. Paul Schnell will be present and from different officers, I was told he was the person that handed me the 180 day sentence. This hearing determines if I will be granted or denied the opportunity to go to medium status, which would allow me to be transferred to a medium security facility as I transition into being released one day.

My faith ALWAYS was that I’d be released by my case being overturned.”

Philip Vance, in a letter from prison to Unicorn Riot in late 2023

During the press conference on Dec. 22, Vance spoke about being transferred to MCF-Rush City and adjusting to the environment that features less programs and more lockdowns.

Civil Disobedience Inside Minnesota’s Stillwater Prison [Sept. 2023] // Prisoners Face Retaliation for Protest at MCF-Stillwater [Sept. 2023]

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Loved Ones and Advocates Call for Wrongfully Convicted to be Freed

Vance is among many hundreds of men of color mass incarcerated in the Minnesota prison system who contend they are wrongfully convicted. During the reign of Amy Klobuchar and Mike Freeman as Hennepin County Attorneys, particularly in the 2000s, a “conveyor belt of Black men were being sent to the prison system,” and many of them were not guilty, said Michelle Gross, co-founder of non-profit police watchdog Communities United Against Police Brutality.

From corporate partnerships with prosecutor’s offices to corrupt gangs of police, a wave of public scrutiny has been growing over wrongful convictions and over-sentencing.

During a press conference in the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis on November 18, 2024, loved ones and advocates demanded that Jermaine Ferguson, Deaunteze Bobo, Joseph Haywood Campbell and Philip Vance be freed from their life sentences from what they say are wrongful convictions. All four of the men mentioned are Black men convicted in the Twin Cities area from 2002 to 2013.

Two advocates spoke for Vance, giving details of his conviction and questioning why he’s still incarcerated while calling for his release.

Jermaine Ferguson’s mother and friend spoke, calling for his release. The mother of Deaunteze Bobo’s children called for his release and the wife of Joseph Haywood Campbell asked “the people that do have the power, what is taking so long to use your power to release the wrongful[ly] convicted?”

Cover image by Niko Georgiades for Unicorn Riot – images via Free Philip Vance team/MissNikki Holliday.

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