Consecutive life sentences upheld for store killing suspect

Published 8:11 am Thursday, May 18, 2017

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld three consecutive life sentences with the possibility of release for a man who was a teenager when prosecutors say he killed three people in a Minneapolis market in 2010.

Mahdi Hassan Ali originally received a mandatory sentence of life without parole, but his case is one of several in Minnesota that was re-examined after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional.

Because his sentences are consecutive, Ali won’t be eligible for parole until he serves 90 years.

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Prosecutors said Ali was 17 when he killed three men during a robbery attempt at Seward Market and Halal Meat. He was convicted and sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole in one of the deaths, then given consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole in the other two.