Done Waiting on CRU, Philip Vance Readies to File Legal Petition for Wrongful Conviction
MCF-Rush City, MN — Serving a life sentence for a deadly robbery in South St. Paul in 2002, Philip Vance has always insisted he is innocent. Since his conviction, he’s been exhausting all legal options to get another chance in court to prove he’s been wrongfully convicted. After waiting years for Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) to finalize their investigation on his case, Vance’s legal team is now preparing to bypass the CRU and file a new petition for postconviction relief with newly acquired evidence proving his innocence on Thursday.
The upcoming filing will include more than 10 affidavits of recanted testimony in Vance’s case and new details on Gang Strike Force officers paying witnesses and jailhouse informants. An online event is occurring on Friday, Feb. 28 at 12:30 p.m. that will feature Philip Vance from prison.
“My whole case was set, built and convicted on police corruption.”
Philip Vance
Vance’s case was investigated by officers in the Metro Gang Strike Force (MGSF), which was disbanded in 2009 after a federal investigation found the force routinely engaged in criminal activities. The prosecution was led by Attorney Kathy Keena (now the Dakota County Attorney) and relied on paid informants and coerced testimonies from jailhouse witnesses, over 10 of whom have since recanted, to secure a conviction against Vance.
Casting further doubt on the perception of Vance’s conviction, an anonymous source recently told Unicorn Riot that they know the real killer in Vance’s case and that an alleged accomplice is already serving two life sentences for a 2004 murder while the person who fired the shots is still free.
Vance is in prison for life over the fatal shooting of Khaled Al-Bakri, a twenty-five-year-old store clerk at Sabreen’s Supermarket on December 22, 2002. Vance was convicted despite no physical or ballistics evidence linking him to the shooting.
Sections: Appeals, Petitions, and Exonerations // Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) // ‘The CRU is a joke,’ Applying to the CRU // The Disbanded Metro Gang Strike Force — ‘My whole case was set, built and convicted on police corruption’ // Citing Lack of Exonerations and Lengthy Time Spent on Applications, CRU’s Advisory Board Calls for Unit Review // New Filing Expected This Week // Vance’s Letter to MN Governor Tim Walz
Feb. 12, 2025: Source Claims Philip Vance is Wrongfully Convicted, Knows the Real Killer
Appeals, Petitions, and Exonerations
After his conviction, Vance filed appeals which rose as high as Minnesota’s Supreme Court. Several post-conviction relief petitions and legal filings, such as attempting to retrieve his phone records to show his location during the time of the murder using cell towers, were all denied.
Vance said he felt his trial was unfair. He was shifted between three public defenders, the most recent of which had never defended a murder case. An assistant working with her did nothing, he said — even in court they gave no rebuttals to the state. “He did no investigation. He interviewed none of my witnesses and he presented no defense. He called no witnesses in my defense,” Vance said to Unicorn Riot from a prison phone.
The mechanisms to get freed after wrongful convictions in Minnesota are limited and getting the judicial system to acknowledge a mistake is an uphill battle. Under Minnesota law, after a felony conviction the defendant can either appeal within 90 days or file a postconviction relief petition. Generally, petitions must be filed within two years if no appeal was filed, though there is an exception for newly found evidence, in which case the petitioner has two years to file upon receiving the new evidence.
Since 1989, only four people in Minnesota have been exonerated from their murder charges. However, a handful of recent exonerations, commutations, and vacated convictions have occurred in the state over the last five years, inspiring hope for the thousand-plus Minnesota inmates who claim they’re wrongfully convicted.
Four people have been freed from their life sentences for murder since 2020 in the state of Minnesota; Myon Burrell (commutation); Thomas Rhodes (conviction vacated); Marvin Haynes (exonerated); and Edgar Barrientos-Quintana (exonerated).
The Great North Innocence Project (GN-IP) had a hand in helping the latter three. Marvin Haynes got exonerated after Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty waived the two-year time allotment and his case was heard in front a judge. Haynes — like Barrientos-Quintana, Myon Burrell and also Philip Vance — was convicted based on police investigators coercing and incentivizing jailhouse informants to lie against the young men.
See our investigative series and film on Marvin Haynes wrongful conviction.
Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU)
GN-IP teamed up with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in 2020 to establish the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit. Directed by Assistant Attorney General Carrie Sperling and staffed by two full-time attorneys, an investigator, paralegal and legal secretary, the unit’s mission is to “identify, remedy, and prevent wrongful convictions.”
To do this, the CRU accepts “applications from incarcerated people who are claiming that they were wrongly convicted of a crime they did not commit” and investigates the claims made in the application. While the CRU has no legal power, the investigative reports the unit produces have been successful in getting court hearings.
The need for CRUs and Conviction Integrity Units (CIU) are part of newer phenomenon that grew from decades of racialized mass incarceration across the country in which thousands of men, primarily Black men, were wrongfully convicted and/or over-sentenced. There are 11 statewide units and over 100 other similar units across the country — the first unit in the country was the Dallas County Attorney’s CIU, created in 2007 and the first statewide unit was in New Jersey in 2019.
Minnesota’s CRU began operations in April 2021 and started taking applications in August 2021. At least 1,151 applications have been sent to the CRU to review — a total of nearly 14% of Minnesota’s adult inmate population. At least 966 applications have been closed out due to lack of available evidence, 13 are in active investigation and five investigations have been completed.
In total, at least 203 applications of wrongful conviction have come in to the CRU with verifiable reasons to believe the applicants are innocent, according to the unit.
Read our 2023 report on the CRU: Limited Funds Stunt Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit — Families Want Expediency
Applying to the CRU — “The CRU is a joke”
Philip Vance submitted an application to CRU in 2021 when they began accepting them and is likely one of the 13 cases listed as an active investigation. Director Sperling interviewed Vance in prison in March 2024 for what he was told would be the final phase of the CRU’s investigation.
“What they said, it sounded good. Man, I’ve been waiting for three years now. No decision, no nothing,” Philip Vance said last year. “The CRU is a joke. I believed in them at one point. They’ve held my case for three years and have no real movement and have discovered nothing significant.”
Reluctant in the first place to apply to the CRU in hopes of having direct court hearings from a postconviction relief petition, Vance said applicants are made to sign an agreement that they won’t file documents in courts, won’t post to social media and won’t do media interviews until the CRU investigation is completed.
“I had to sign something saying I would do no social media posts. I would do no media interviews or none of that. I will file nothing in court. So they’ve held me silent for three years.”
Philip Vance
“They got a thousand people in Minnesota that’s signed up with them,” said Vance, “they stopped a thousand people from putting in legal filings. They’re taking a thousand cases of people who are saying that they’re innocent and they’re stalling it for years.” The CRU has held those thousand people “silent” said Vance.
Vance feels the process of prosecutors working together with the CRU is assisting the courts and the state rather than the inmates claiming they’re wrongfully convicted. “The CRU wasn’t created to help the wrongfully convicted,” Vance quipped. “I think it was created to help the state from further ridicule of all of these bogus wrongful convictions” during a time when past county attorneys and prosecutorial culture was beginning to be examined, he said.
Vance said that while working on his case, a CRU investigator attempted to intimidate the people he was interviewing. The investigator reportedly went “super hard” on a witness that came forward saying the police coerced them to lie by “trying to make it look like what she’s saying isn’t right.” Vance noted the same happened with his alibi witness — saying the investigator framed it “like she don’t know what she’s talking about, like she’s lying.”
“They’re not doing what they say they’re trying to do. All my evidence that points to my innocence, they’re trying to make it seem like it’s not true.” Furthermore, Vance said investigators never once said anything “about the police part. Everybody I talk to is trying to avoid the police corruption part. Nobody wants to talk about that… My whole case was set, built and convicted on police corruption.“
Community Demands Exoneration for Philip Vance on 22nd Anniversary of Murder
The Disbanded Metro Gang Strike Force — “My whole case was set, built and convicted on police corruption”
Following a surge of violent crime in the 1990s in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), the late 90s and 2000s were rife with criminal police officers and racist prosecutors locking up large numbers of Black youth following nationwide fear campaigns that amplified racial stereotypes. As a result, by the year 2000 Black men represented 28% of Minnesota’s prison population despite only being 3% of the total population.
Law enforcement agencies, including Minnesota’s newly established Metro Gang Strike Force, employed often unethical tactics in their investigations, placing a higher value on securing convictions than uncovering the truth. The Metro Gang Strike Force (formerly Minnesota Gang Strike Force) — disbanded in 2009 following FBI investigations that revealed widespread corruption, violence, and misconduct — was instrumental in Philip Vance’s wrongful conviction.
While Hennepin County, which contains the Minneapolis metro area, bore the brunt of wrongful convictions during this period, Vance’s case took place in Dakota County, a suburb of St. Paul, which demonstrates how the pressure to convict, fueled by systemic bias and a culture of impunity, extended beyond the core Twin Cities area.
No officers faced any consequences for years of committing violent acts on community members, including rape/sodomy, assaults, theft and routinely targeting immigrants. Officer Jason Anderson, who fatally shot Fong Lee in Minneapolis in 2006, was the only Strike Force officer ever indicted on any charges, and he was acquitted of violating the civil rights of a Black teen by kicking him in the head.
For Vance, it was the MGSF that violated his civil rights by reducing sentences and giving money to jailhouse informants in exchange for their testimony against him.
The CRU doesn’t want to “have to accept the fact that the police is corrupt. I think they’re trying to find any other way to give me some play other than what the police did but everything continues to come back to the police,” said Vance.
“I just want the public to know that police corruption is real. Injustice is real. It’s not just in the movies.”
Philip Vance
Citing Lack of Exonerations and Lengthy Time Spent on Applications, CRU’s Advisory Board Calls for Unit Review
An Advisory Board of over a dozen members in the legal field, including the likes of Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty, and Winona County Attorney Karin Sonneman, helped create CRU’s charter and provides ongoing recommendations.
Concerned with the “lack of exonerations and the lengthy amount of time the unit was spending on case review and investigations,” the Advisory Board expressed a need for an audit of the CRU. The Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, which helped formulate the CRU with individualized support, paid for an external review that started in April 2024.
Patricia Cummings, Research Scholar for the Peter L. Zimroth Center on the Administration of Criminal Law at NYU School of Law and a consultant for CIUs across the country, released the audit’s findings along with recommendations on February 19, 2025. View the 41-page report here (pdf).
The review found that despite the low number of innocent inmates freed from incarceration, Minnesota’s CRU outpaced the rest of the country in numbers. According to data from the Quattrone Center, there were a total of 1,736 applications submitted to CRUs and Conviction Integrity Units (CIU) across the nation excluding Minnesota, with only six completed investigations, compared to Minnesota’s five completions from 1,151 applications.
From 2023 into 2024, the Advisory Board would hold video meetings with links accessible to the public via their website. This practice has ceased as of last year with their upcoming meetings section noting, as of February 26, 2025, that the next meeting “will be in Fall 2024” with a date of “TBD.”
The review noted that “little progress appears to have been made” in the Advisory Board and suggested a reason could be that the meetings are “virtual and open to the public. While admirable from a transparency perspective, open and public meetings may limit frank discussion on pressing topics.” Unicorn Riot asked the CRU if the meetings will become publicly accessible again, but CRU’s Press Secretary declined to comment. [UPDATE / Feb. 27, 2025: CRU’s press secretary responded: “The next CRU Advisory Board meeting will indeed be public, and it will be published on our website when the meeting date is finalized.”]
The review came with four near-term (within 6 to 12 months) recommendations and four long-term (within 12 to 24 months) recommendations:
- Increase Resources for the Unit’s Operations
- Formulate and Adopt Amended Policies and Procedures for the Advisory Board
- Engage in Legislative Advocacy to Advance Conviction Integrity Principles
- Conduct Systemic Reviews of Cases Involving Known Bad Actors
- Conduct Interoffice and Statewide Professional Trainings on Wrongful Convictions
- The Minnesota CRU Should Explore Sentencing Relief Options
- The Minnesota CRU Should Produce an Annual Public Report
- The CRU Should Establish a Fellowship for Law Students
Of special note in Vance’s case is the fourth near-term recommendation to conduct systemic reviews of cases involving known bad actors. Bad actors are described in the report as “prosecutors, police officers, experts, or informants—whose conduct in a case or cases was so egregious it raised significant questions to whether that individual engaged in similar conduct in other cases.”
Formerly incarcerated abolitionist and Free Philip Vance team member Jason Sole said Vance’s case doesn’t only show that he’s “innocent, it shows a bunch of people lied … they know his case should open up a lot of other cases because I think he’s a drop in the bucket for what they’ve been doing out here.”
The review notes how difficult it is for their unit, backed by the power of the state’s top law enforcement officer, the Attorney General, to change the outcome of a closed court case. Those difficulties are accentuated for powerless inmates languishing behind prison walls.
“At its most basic level, this means the CRU must convince the locally elected county attorney that a conviction its prosecutors likely fought hard to win may be flawed—not an easy task because sometimes prosecutors who played a role in a conviction may be affected by various forms of cognitive bias.”
EXTERNAL REVIEW OF MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL’S CONVICTION INTEGRITY UNIT
New Filing Expected This Week
Vance’s new legal team is expected to file a new petition for postconviction relief on Thursday, February 27.
“Now, I have ten times the newly discovered evidence that I didn’t have access to at the time, or that I found through due diligence, that I can present now that would have had a significant effect on my conviction,” said Vance.
The filing is expected to include at least 10 affidavits of witnesses recanting testimony along with new details proving the Gang Strike Force paid and induced witnesses and jailhouse informants in Vance’s case. “The State of Minnesota is foul, man, especially the police. This is real. Ain’t nothing made up,” expressed Vance.
“Me personally, I don’t feel that a judge can look at the evidence I have of police corruption and all these witnesses and their testimony statements about being either coerced, threatened or bribed into false testimony against me. I don’t think a judge can look past that (unless he’s corrupt too).”
Philip Vance
The court petition will likely be reviewed by Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena, who had previously denied Vance’s filings. A fundraiser to support legal costs for Vance has raised over 86% of the $50,000 goal as of Feb. 26, 2025.
On Friday, Feb. 28, Vance’s team is holding an online event starting at 12:30 p.m. CST inviting supporters, advocates for justice and media. The conference is set to share “key findings, details of the legal petition/memo, [and] anticipated next steps in the judicial process.”
“Justice and liberty shouldn’t be a luxury for people of color or people who don’t have the funds to acquire it,” said Vance, who’s story has thus far reflected a justice system prioritizing convictions over truth.
On Dec. 22, 2024, twenty two years after the fatal shooting, the Free Philip Vance team held a press conference in South Saint Paul near the site of where Sabreen’s Supermarket used to be located. “I just want the world to know that I am innocent,” Vance said while calling in to the presser. While speaking remotely, Vance held 22 seconds of silence for Khaled Al-Bakri, spoke about his case and took questions. Read Unicorn Riot’s multi-media report here and see the video below.
Vance’s Letter to MN Governor Tim Walz
The Free Philip Vance team shared a letter Vance wrote from prison to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in which he asks Walz to “look into the details that surround my conviction, then look into the truths that have appeared after my wrongful conviction.”
Read the letter in full below.
“Governor Walz,
I would first like to congratulate you on your amazing run for the Vice Presidency this past election. My name is Philip Vance (no relation to your opponent). In 2004 I was wrongfully convicted by a Dakota County jury for the 2002 murder/robbery of a South St. Paul store clerk, Khaled AI-Bakri. I became the suspect to Khaled’s murder because of statements a bar maid relayed to her St. Paul Police brother that I allegedly made to her. I was charged w/ 1st Degree murder and convicted from the testimony of officers from the Metro Gang Strike Force and their informants. I was sentenced to life in prison.
No evidence tied or linked me to the crime scene or Khaled’s untimely death. I’ve been incarcerated wrongfully now 21 years. I have exhausted all appeal options and consistently was denied by courts.
Ironically 5 years after my wrongful conviction, the group of police officers that investigated me, as well as testified on the case I was wrongfully convicted of (M.G.S.F) were found to be a group of “rouge” officers and corrupt. These facts/details were investigated/discovered by now Federal Attorney General Andrew Luger. After being reinterviewed, most witnesses/informants who testified against me at trial admitted that their testimonies (Grand Jury/trial) were coerced and derived from promises of time reductions in cases they were facing. Promises of dismissed charges, and financial incentives for testimony favorable to my conviction.
Witnesses even admitted that the details they testified to was given to them by police, members of the M.G.S.F.
In 2020 I was encouraged to allow the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) to investigate the facts/details of my case, possibly using their influence to ask Dakota County to exonerate me. I was interviewed by assistant Attorney General Carrie Sperling and her investigator in March of 2024. I was told this interview would be the final phase of the CRU’s investigation. 1 year has passed since that interview, and it is going on 5 years that the CRU has been holding their decision about my case.
It is obvious that my incarceration came at the hands of people the state of Minnesota holds to high standards. It is also obvious that the powers that be are afraid to express what has been revealed/discovered about some Minnesota police officers. Hundreds of people the CRU investigated were denied and told no evidence was discovered/found that they felt required exoneration. They have held my case for almost 5 years now. Why haven’t I been denied if no evidence was discovered/found that I did not meet their threshold for exoneration?
I believe the truth about the MGSF and their actions is not a good look for the state of Minnesota. I also think agreeing that the actions of these officers was wrong creates mistrust for the police of this state. Which creates even bigger issues for officer’s of the law. Not to mention possibly hundreds of cases that would need to be reopened and reviewed.
Governor, I’ve been incarcerated almost 22 years for a crime I had NO KNOWLEDGE OF, nor participated in. Thru due diligence, my legal team, and supporters have discovered, collected, and gathered a plethora of evidence that shows/prove that I was blamed, lied on, and wrongfully convicted of a heinous murder I played no part in, or knew nothing about.
I ask you Governor Walz to look into the details that surround my conviction, then look into the truths that have appeared after my wrongful conviction. I should not have to continuously suffer because people of power/influence of Minnesota are afraid of what holding other people of power/influence in Minnesota accountable for their actions will look like to the people of Minnesota. And even America. I thought holding people accountable for their actions was what America was about? If that is not the definition of justice, I do not know what is???
Thank you for your time. Hopefully my inconvenience/suffering peeks your interest.
Sincerely, Philip Vance #215517″
Letter from Philip Vance to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Feb. 4, 2025
[UPDATE: Responding to previous questions posed from Unicorn Riot, CRU’s Press Secretary Brian Evans said on Feb. 27 that applicants to CRU are not made to forego court filings.]
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