The Minnesota Attorney General's Conviction Review Unit (CRU) has concluded the review of the Philip Randall Vance case, announced Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena.
The CRU is a specialized unit within the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General and investigates claims of wrongful convictions at the request of a defendant. They performed an extensive, independent and collaborative investigation of Vance's case — they reviewed thousands of pages of case-related materials, listened to hundreds of hours of recordings and interviewed several witnesses. After a four-year investigation, the CRU does not recommend vacating Vance's murder conviction. A copy of the report can be found on the Minnesota Attorney General's Office website.
Oct. 5, 2004, Philip Vance was found guilty by a Dakota County jury of two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of second-degree intentional murder in the shooting death of 25-year-old Khaled Majed Al-Bakri. The victim was a clerk at Sabreen's Supermarket in South St. Paul at the time of the incident. On Oct. 8, 2004, Vance was sentenced to life imprisonment, a mandatory term for the conviction of premeditated first-degree murder.
Since the conviction in 2004, Vance has filed multiple petitions for postconviction relief and the court denied all petitions. His convictions were also upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court in a unanimous opinion issued on May 25, 2006 and again on July 10, 2008.
On July 30, 2021, Vance requested the CRU to conduct an independent investigation of the case.
In December 2022 and February 2025, Vance's legal team filed additional petitions for postconviction relief. The court had agreed to place the postconviction proceedings on hold until the CRU completed its investigation. On March 25, 2026 the court issued an order denying the petition for postconviction relief. The order can be found under court file number 19-K6-04-736.
“I respect the court's decision and I appreciate the CRU for the thorough evaluation of this matter," said County Attorney Keena. “Our office remains committed to transparency and to upholding the integrity of the justice system."