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   Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:47 JST Unicorn Riot

   🚨New investigation:
   Target, ‘Junk Science’ and Unreliable Testimonies: The Contentious Conviction of 15-Year-Old Mahdi Ali
   https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/target-junk-science-and-unreliable-testimonies-the-contentious-conviction-of-15-year-old-mahdi-ali/
   Overlooked details have emerged casting serious doubt on Mahdi Hassan Ali’s conviction for a 2010 triple murder in Minneapolis.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:42 JST Unicorn Riot

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     This report documents nearly thirty issues we found in the official investigation of the Seward Market murders, from minor to major — detailing unethical practices used by police and prosecutors including the use of a paid informant and a jailhouse snitch, circumstantial evidence that points to other suspects, and the statement from Ahmed Ali that he lied about Mahdi’s involvement.

     Mr. Bill repeated this.
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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:42 JST Unicorn Riot

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     ... all showcasing a fixation by authorities to convict Mahdi while the evidence suggests that the real killer escaped accountability. https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/target-junk-science-and-unreliable-testimonies-the-contentious-conviction-of-15-year-old-mahdi-ali/

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:43 JST Unicorn Riot

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     Before trial, Osman produced Khalid Farrah’s Kenyan birth certificate stating that he was actually born on August 25, 1994, in Nairobi, making him 15 years old at the time of the murders, requiring his case to remain in juvenile court.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:43 JST Unicorn Riot

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     But Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill rejected the document and instead allowed the state to have a dentist examine the teen’s teeth, a practice that is widely criticized as questionable science. The state’s witness testified that his teeth made him at least 17 years old, allowing the state to try him as an adult.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:43 JST Unicorn Riot

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     UR reviewed more than two thousand pages of documents, including the police report, trial transcripts, news reports and other legal documents. We conducted numerous phone interviews with Mahdi from prison, interviewed Mahdi’s mother, his friend he was with the night of the killings and several other sources, as well as reviewed parts of surveillance footage related to the crimes, all creating a very different version of events than the official account.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:44 JST Unicorn Riot

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     When his friend died, the parents offered him an opportunity to go to America, but he would have to assume the identity of their son, and keep it a secret. The couple abandoned Mahdi. He ended up in and out of foster homes, group homes, and juvenile detention centers.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:44 JST Unicorn Riot

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     He was reunited with who he thought was his grandmother. Mahdi admitted that he wasn’t an angel. “I had to take care of myself,” he explained. “How could they blame me for surviving when I was just a kid and they put me in that situation in the first place?”

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:44 JST Unicorn Riot

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     Mahdi continued to get in trouble as a teen, though he said he never carried guns and mostly got into trouble for theft and stealing cars. “But I am not a killer,” he insisted.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:44 JST Unicorn Riot

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     After Mahdi’s arrest, the woman he believed was his grandmother, Sainab Osman, revealed that she was really his biological mother, which was also backed up by DNA tests. Osman, with whom Mahdi shares a striking resemblance, spoke to UR through an interpreter.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:45 JST Unicorn Riot

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     Charged with being the shooter, Mahdi Ali, who was just 15 years old at the time of the killings, denied any involvement and pleaded not guilty.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:45 JST Unicorn Riot

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     He was tried as an adult and convicted September 23, 2011 for one count of premeditated first-degree murder, two counts of second degree murder, and three counts of first-degree felony murder. Mahdi Ali was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:45 JST Unicorn Riot

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     For more than 14 years, Mahdi has ardently maintained his innocence. He believes Ahmed committed the crimes with his cousin and had every reason to frame him.
     In 2013, Mahdi unsuccessfully appealed his sentence at the Minnesota Supreme Court, which ruled against him the following year, but he continues to fight for his freedom to this day.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:45 JST Unicorn Riot

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     Mahdi said growing up in the system & having a guardian who was illiterate & didn’t speak English made him an easy target for police to pin the murders on. “I was the perfect scapegoat,” he exclaimed.
     Mahdi’s life story is something movies are made out of.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:46 JST Unicorn Riot

     in reply to

     Unicorn Riot’s independent investigation of his arrest and prosecution found dozens of issues in the case, part of long-running abuses of power by Minneapolis police and prosecutors. 1min video:

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:46 JST Unicorn Riot

     in reply to

     UR contributor Marjaan Sirdar identified 27 specific issues raising questions about the integrity of the 2010 Seward Market triple murder investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office. https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/target-junk-science-and-unreliable-testimonies-the-contentious-conviction-of-15-year-old-mahdi-ali/

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:46 JST Unicorn Riot

     in reply to

     On the night of January 6, 2010, within 62 seconds of sheer horror, Anwar Mohammed, Mohamed Warfa and Osman Elmi, were slain at Seward Market in South Minneapolis during a robbery that went wrong.
     Footage from impound lot, Dahabshiil check cashing store & Seward Market.

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     Unicorn Riot (unicornriot@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 08-Jun-2024 07:57:46 JST Unicorn Riot

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     Within 48 hours, police ID'd suspect 17-year-old Ahmed Shire Ali. He pleaded guilty to 3 counts of aggravated robbery & served 12 years.
     He recanted his claim re Mahdi. “I was protecting someone else. And he (Mahdi) ended up taking the fall for something he didn’t end up doing.”