Minnesota Man Convicted of Crime He Says He Didn't Commit Released Prison

A Minnesota man is free after spending more than 10 years in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit.

Terry Olson was released from prison on Sept. 13.

Though a judge ultimately denied Olson’s request for a new trial, the Wright County Attorney’s Office realized the unfairness of Olson’s situation and decided he should be immediately released from prison after more than ten years of incarceration.

Olson was convicted in 2007 for the 1979 death Jeff Hammill. Hammill had been found dead by the side of the road just outside of Buffalo, MN.

At the time of his death, law enforcement investigated the case as a possible roadside accident or homicide, and ultimately the case was closed with no charges being filed, according to a news release from the Innocence Project of Minnesota (IPMN), which helped free Olson.

In 2003, police reopened the case by interrogating and securing a confession from a mentally ill man, Dale Todd They told him that in 1979 they had taken and kept evidence from his car that contained biological evidence that proved he was involved in a murder. This was not true, according to IPMN.

The police had no such evidence but Todd was so frightened and unstable that he confessed and implicated Olson and another man, Ron Michaels. Michaels was brought to trial first in 2006.

At Michaels’ trial, Todd admitted that he had been coerced to falsely confess and falsely implicate Michaels and Olson.

Michaels was acquitted. Several months later when Olson was brought to trial, Todd was coerced into reverting to the story he told police in 2003, IPMN says.

Olson was convicted and sent to prison for 17 years. Days later, Todd wrote a letter to the trial judge explaining he had lied at Olson’s trial. No hearing was held on Todd’s recantation.

In 2012, Todd contacted the Innocence Project of Minnesota. For the first time in many years, his mental health issues were now stabilized with medication.

He wanted to clear his conscience and again tell the truth, as he had at Michael’s trial, that none of them were involved in the death of Hammill and that the police had frightened him into making a false confession, according to IPMN.

He provided a detailed affidavit explaining the circumstances of his false coerced confession. In addition, at a hearing on Olson’s request for a new trial, Olson’s public defenders admitted that they provided him with poor representation in several key ways.

One of the attorneys acknowledged that there were budget cuts and staffing problems in his office, that his caseload was unusually large, and he missed several important issues in Olson’s case.

Although the judge ultimately denied Olson’s request for a new trial, the Wright County Attorney’s Office realized the unfairness of Olson’s situation.

Their office agreed that in the interest of justice Olson should be immediately released from prison.

Olson has always declared his innocence, and IPMN says the many attorneys and law students who have worked on his case for years also believe he is innocent.

Image via Innocence Project of Minnesota, used with permission