Former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor was sentenced on Oct. 21 to nearly five years in prison on manslaughter charges for fatally shooting a woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. Noor, a Somali-American, was initially found guilty of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Justine Rusczcyk Damond and was sentenced on April 30, 2019.
The Minnesota Supreme Court tossed out Noor’s murder conviction and sentence last month, saying the third-degree murder statute doesn’t fit the case. The justices said the charge can only apply when a defendant shows a “generalized indifference to human life,” not when the conduct is directed at a particular person, as it was with Damond.
Noor was given the maximum time for manslaughter and has already served 29 months. He could get out even earlier as Minnesota inmates who behave well in prison usually serve two-thirds of their prison time and then serve the remainder of their time on supervised release.
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