New Conviction Integrity Unit Agrees to Review Mahdi Ali’s Case
Minneapolis, MN — After fifteen and a half years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, a fresh burst of hope has worked its way into the cell of Mahdi Ali. His legal team has filed an application with Hennepin County’s new Conviction Integrity Unit and recently received assurance from the unit’s director, Andrew Markquart, that the office would give Ali’s case its “full attention.”
Just two months after forming, The Coalition to Free Mahdi Ali continues to grow, with teachers, organizers and community members committing to fight to liberate Ali from his life sentence. On June 10, 2025, the coalition held a press conference at the Hennepin County Government Center:
Ali was just 15 years old when he was convicted and given a life sentence for a 2010 triple murder in South Minneapolis.
Unicorn Riot’s 2024 investigation into Ali’s case found dozens of issues in his conviction. We found that the case was largely based on unreliable testimonies from people implicated in the same crime — one of whom later recanted claims of Mahdi’s involvement — along with support from the multinational retail giant Target Corp’s forensics team, who testified at trial against the teen.
Background on Mahdi Ali’s story: Target, ‘Junk Science’ and Unreliable Testimonies: The Contentious Conviction of 15-Year-Old Mahdi Ali [June 2024]
“He was the perfect patsy,” said Marcia Howard, Ali’s former high school teacher and president of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators. In an emotional speech during the press conference, Howard choked back tears while saying she felt “ashamed” that she and other teachers had given up on Ali after he was arrested and “just accepted it at face value.”
Ali is one of thousands of people suffering in Minnesota prisons who claim they’ve been wrongfully convicted over the last two-plus decades. According to Minnesota’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU), at least two hundred of those claims have been found to have evidence backing up their innocence.
Spotlighting Target’s involvement in funding the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and providing forensic witnesses to testify against Ali during his trial, organizers of the nationwide Target boycott included the freedom of Mahdi Ali as an additional demand to bringing back their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs.
“This boycott does not end until Mahdi Ali is free … we need Mahdi Ali’s name shared and his story told across the country,” said Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and Target boycott organizer.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, another Target boycott organizer and founder of Racial Justice Network, called for Ali’s release and for a Truth and Reconciliation commission similar to what’s happened in Apartheid South Africa to gather stories, hold systems and people accountable and “compensate the Black community and specifically the victims of the terrorism that was inflicted upon our community by law enforcement and those in the county attorney’s office.”
Ali called into the press conference and Michelle Gross (a paralegal on his legal team) held her cellphone up to the microphone of the public address system to amplify his voice. “When you are fighting for something,” Ali said, “you find passionate people all across the world who are willing to fight with you. So that’s what motivated me to continue fighting. Being innocent is what kept me alive all these years. So my time in prison 15.5 years, I dedicated to giving back my time teaching, mentoring, being a tutor within the criminal system and helping other guys graduate along the process.”
Target of Injustice: Free Mahdi Ali Campaign Kicks Off [May 2025]
For more, see an interview with UR contributor MJ Sirdar breaking down Ali’s case and a summary of the 27 issues found in the Minneapolis Police’s investigation into Ali.
Interview: Breaking Down the Mahdi Ali Case
27 Issues Found in Minneapolis Police Investigation of Mahdi Ali
Disclosure: Free Mahdi Ali campaign co-founder Marjaan “MJ” Sirdaar contributed several pieces to Unicorn Riot about Target’s role in mass incarceration in Minnesota and Mahdi Ali’s case before going on to co-lead The Coalition to Free Mahdi Ali.
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