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Alleged Minnesota assassin Vance Luther Boelter, who was arrested near his Green Isle home, is facing murder charges in Hennepin County. However, additional charges are possible. The 57-year-old is now facing two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder after killing former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortmon and her husband, and injuring Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in their Champlin home.
While Boelter is now facing second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder charges, Kare 11’s Lou Raguse said that these charges could be upgraded to first-degree by a grand jury. As per procedure, prosecutors generally charge a suspect with second-degree murder and a grand jury later elevates the charge to first-degree, or premeditated murder.
Does Minnesota have the death penalty?
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the death penalty in Minnesota has been abolished since as early as 1911. Rep. MacKenzie said in his 1911 speech in favor of the abolition bill, “Let us bar this thing of Vengeance and the Furies from the confines of our great State; Let not this harlot of judicial murder smear the pages of our history with her bloody fingers, or trail her crimson robes through our Halls of Justice, and let never again the Great Seal of the Great State of Minnesota be affixed upon a warrant to take a human life. . . .”
Ever since the death penalty was abolished, Minnesota has seen several unsuccessful attempts at reinstating it since 1911. “For example, the 2003 reinstatement bills were introduced in response to a triple murder in Long Prairie, Minnesota. Nevertheless, due to the efforts of legislators and organizations such as The Advocates for Human Rights and Minnesotans Against the Death Penalty (MNADP), attempts at reinstatement have thus far failed to pass the legislature,” the Death Penalty Information Center stated.
If a person is convicted of first-degree murder in Minnesota, the laws say that they will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the rest of their life without the possibility of release, or what we commonly refer to as “life without parole.” In case of a second-degree murder, the maximum punishment is up to 40 years in prison, according to lundgrenjohnson.com. The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines always apply in instructing the appropriate sentence.
While Boelter’s legal fate has yet to be decided, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth called for strict punishment, saying she is “grateful that this nightmare has come to an end with the suspected murderer captured alive so he can be charged, prosecuted, and punished for the horror he has wrought on our state.”
“Thank you to the brave men and women of local, state, and federal law enforcement who have worked around the clock to ensure this evil man faces justice,” Demuth added.
