A court in Hennepin County has vacated the murder conviction of Bryan Hooper Sr., which means he can be released after spending almost 27 years in prison for killing 77-year-old Ann Prazniak in 1998. According to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP), Judge Marta Chou gave the order on September 3, and Hooper left Stillwater Correctional Facility the next day.
Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County Attorney, said that the court agreed that “Mr. Hooper is an innocent man.” She also added that her office worked to clean his name after another individual confessed, and she apologized to Hooper and his family.
“Today, the courts have affirmed what Bryan Hooper, his family, his loved ones, and his advocates have always known: Mr. Hooper is an innocent man,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said. “It is our duty as prosecutors to hold the correct individuals responsible for their actions, and that duty demands that we acknowledge our mistakes and make things right as quickly as we can. When our Conviction Integrity Unit learned that another person had confessed to the crime for which Mr. Hooper was convicted, they worked tirelessly to clear his name and secure his release.
“We are relieved that Mr. Hooper can finally return home to his family after 27 years, and I want to again apologize to him and his family for our office’s role in that injustice. We wish Mr. Hooper all the best as he begins to navigate a world that is barely recognizable from the world he knew in 1998.”
Prosecutors indicated that the state’s most important trial witness has changed her story and admitted to killing Prazniak and hiding her body. She has told this to many law enforcement agencies, a prison chaplain, and family members. The lawyer’s office also said that other witnesses whose testimony helped convict Hooper were paid and had subsequently changed their minds. The office decided that it could not defend the verdict.
The Great North Innocence Project says that the case started on April 15, 1998, when Minneapolis police recovered Prazniak’s remains in a cardboard box in a bedroom closet at 1818 Park Avenue. The medical examiner said that asphyxiation was the cause of death and that she had been dead for two weeks to a month when the body was found. Neighbors said that individuals were coming and going from the flat during that time.
According to GNIP, the prosecution’s case was based on testimony from Chalaka Young, who denied knowing about the incident in three police interviews. However, after being threatened with a murder charge, she named Hooper and got a shorter sentence in a different case. Four more witnesses who said Hooper said things that made him look bad were paid or let go; all four later changed their minds. GNIP said that Hooper’s fingerprints were found on things in the living room, but not on those that were directly related to the murder. He was found guilty of three charges of first-degree murder and given three life sentences.
In a statement, GNIP said that on July 19, 2025, Young was in prison in Georgia and wrote a confession saying he was solely responsible for Prazniak’s killing. He later told authorities and taped calls the same thing. The new proof was given to the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.
On August 12, GNIP filed a petition to have Hooper’s conviction thrown out. The county attorney’s office joined the appeal on the same day. The two statements say that at a hearing on September 2, the parties agreed that the recantations warranted vacatur. Judge Chou granted the motion on September 3, and Hooper was released on September 4. Jim Mayer, the legal director of GNIP, stated that the ruling supports what Hooper’s family has been saying for decades and called for changes to stop people from being wrongfully convicted in the future.
Moriarty noted that her office’s job is to hold the right people accountable and “make things right as quickly as we can.” She was happy that Hooper could go home after 27 years.
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