Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J).

TCC4J demands freedom for Myon Burrell, despite Mike Freeman’s politically motivated endorsement of Klobuchar’s prosecution.

On Monday, February 24, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman released a statement defending Amy Klobuchar for the wrongful conviction of Myon Burrell. Freeman claims the attacks on Klobuchar for her highly questionable handling of the case are ‘politically motivated.’ They are not. Activists and community members want Burrell’s unfair conviction reviewed and overturned, and we want Freeman and Klobuchar to be held accountable for railroading an innocent Black teenager to gain political points for being “tough on crime.”

In truth, Freeman’s response is as politically motivated as Klobuchar’s choice to hold up this case as an example of her work on behalf of the African American community. Freeman’s statements are a combination of platitudes and attacks on Myon Burrell designed to do damage control for Klobuchar’s campaign heading into the Super Tuesday primaries.

This situation provided both Freeman and Klobuchar the opportunity to do the right thing and join the community and say that Burrell’s conviction should be overturned. Instead both chose political expediency over justice.

Freeman’s statements gloss over well-known facts about Myon’s case. It is known that the MPD [Minneapolis Police Department] illegally held Myon despite requests for his mother and legal representation. It is well known that Klobuchar chose to use an unreliable jailhouse informant to convict Myon, ignoring statements of two other suspects that Myon was not present.

After the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned Myon’s conviction based upon flawed, missing and false evidence, Klobuchar chose to try Myon again, because she was unwilling to lose a “victory” in her fight on crime. After Klobuchar became a senator, it was Mike Freeman who oversaw Myon’s second case, which found a conviction based upon Freeman knowingly using the same flawed evidence and a biased judge.

The situation is political. It is about the politics of Klobuchar and Freeman doing harm to yet another Black man for their own political gain. Community members demand politics get out of the way of justice. It’s time for Klobuchar and Freeman to stop talking, and get to work to free Myon Burrell.

#MinneapolisMN #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #Elections #TwinCitiesCoalitionForJusticeForJamarTCC4J #AmyKlobuchar #MyonBurrell