MINNEAPOLIS — The man charged with killing a key Minnesota senator and wounding another could face something that is a rare for Minnesota but could become more regular under the Trump administration: the death sentence.
Minnesota outlawed capital punishment in 1911, and the state’s last execution was a botched hanging in 1906. But federal prosecutors unveiled accusations against Vance Boelter on Monday that can carry the death penalty.
It is not uncommon for both state and federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges for the same offence, particularly in high-profile cases.
In this instance, federal agents effectively took the lead from the state prosecution, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty. Boelter had been due to make his initial court appearance on state charges Monday, but instead marshals brought him from the county jail to the U.S. courthouse in St. Paul, where he appeared on the more serious federal counts.
Boelter is suspected of fatally shooting former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their northern Minneapolis suburbs home early Saturday. Before that, investigators believe, he also shot and wounded another Democrat, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, who resided a few miles away. He surrendered Sunday night, following what authorities described as the greatest search in Minnesota history.
The federal case
Two of the six federal counts carry the death sentence, which federal prosecutors have not pursued in a Minnesota case since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
“Will we seek the death penalty? It is too early to know. That is one of the options,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said Monday at a news conference where he revealed new details of what he described as a meticulously planned attack. They included charges that Boelter allegedly visited the residences of two other senators that night and was targeting dozens of other Democrats, including officials from other states.
Boelter’s federal defence attorneys have declined to comment on the case, and he has not filed a plea.
On her first day in office in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi overturned a federal execution ban placed by the Biden administration in 2021. Only three defendants remain on federal execution row, after Biden commuted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
Bondi has already authorized federal prosecutors to seek the death sentence in at least three cases, including against Luigi Mangione for the shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. In the other two instances, the Justice Department has stated it is seeking the death penalty against convicts charged with killing fellow jail inmates.
President Donald Trump’s first administration carried out 13 federal executions, more than the administration of any other president in contemporary history.
The state’s case
The federal interference in Boelter’s case appeared to upset Moriarty, the county’s former chief public defender, who was elected on a police reform and racial justice platform in 2022 after the police killing of George Floyd.
At a news conference Monday to announce the state charges, Moriarty gave only broad comments in response to queries regarding the connection between the federal and state investigations. But she recognised “there’s a tension” and added federal authorities “can speak for themselves.”
Moriarty said she expects to push forward in state court regardless and to pursue an indictment for first-degree murder for the killings of the Hortmans, which would carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Her office did not immediately respond to a request for further information Tuesday.
As proof of the tensions, the county attorney declined to define how Boelter’ first hearings would play out. Court documents show that Boelter was called for a first appearance in Hennepin County on Monday and that because he was not there as he was in federal detention, the judge issued a bench warrant as a formality, as requested by prosecutors.
“Usually murder cases are overwhelmingly handled in state courts,” said Mark Osler, a death penalty expert at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. “Clearly this is something of national interest. And that appears to have a role in the judgement that the Justice Department is making here.”
Osler, who earlier worked as Moriarty’s deputy county attorney and chief of her criminal division, as well as assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit, recognised that there are often difficulties between state and federal prosecutors.
