Overview

• State District Court Judge Marta Chou ruled the original verdict was tainted by false evidence, vacating the conviction a day before Hooper’s release.
• Hooper left Stillwater Correctional Facility on Thursday morning after more than 27 years and reunited with his children, according to the Great North Innocence Project.
• Prosecutors say a crucial trial witness has recanted her testimony and confessed to killing 77-year-old Ann Prazniak and hiding her body in a box in her Minneapolis apartment.
• The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and its Conviction Integrity Unit sought the vacatur following the recantation, and officials have not announced any charges against the confessing witness, who is incarcerated in Georgia.
• Court records note no DNA linked Hooper to the killing, while the witness’s fingerprint was found on tape used to bind Prazniak, whose death was ruled asphyxiation.