Experts to review 7 murder cases handled by Minnesota medical examiner accused of false testimony
Prosecutors say a Minnesota medical examiner with a history of delivering false or misleading reports may have mishandled at least seven murder cases in which his testimony helped send people to prison
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota medical examiner who prosecutors say has a history of delivering false or misleading reports may have mishandled at least seven murder cases in which his testimony helped send people to prison, attorneys announced Wednesday.
The announcement followed a sprawling review of cases, some dating back decades, handled by Dr. Michael McGee, a former Ramsey County medical examiner who prosecutors say performed autopsies on cases from 1985 to 2019. McGee's work was called “unreliable, misleading and inaccurate” by a federal judge, setting off a wide-ranging inquiry into a potential “chain of injustices,” prosecutors said.
Now, a joint team of lawyers and medical experts will determine whether convictions and long sentences built around McGee’s work should be overturned or reduced. Their deep dive into McGee's history began in fall 2021 after a federal judge threw out the death sentence of a man who was convicted in the high- profile kidnapping and murder of a North Dakota college student.
“Whenever a judge makes that determination it really calls into question ... everything the medical examiner has been involved with,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said. “Legitimacy and the integrity in of all of our convictions matter in how people trust what happens in the courtroom.”
