Trump DOJ refused to renew federal grant for Minnesota's Conviction Review Unit, forcing its closure

On July 1, 2026, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the suspension of his office's Conviction Review Unit (CRU) after the Trump administration's Department of Justice declined to renew the federal grant that had funded the program. "Following the Trump Administration's refusal to renew federal grant funding that supported the program, my Office is suspending our Conviction Review Unit," Ellison stated. "Current budget constraints do not allow the program's costs to be absorbed without compromising other core responsibilities."

The CRU was established in 2021, becoming one of only four such conviction review programs housed in a state attorney general's office nationally. Its initial funding came from a $300,000 DOJ grant awarded in 2020 and channeled through the Great North Innocence Project. That grant was renewed in 2023 at $500,000 for two additional years, with the Minnesota Legislature providing supplemental funding. When the unit applied for another renewal in 2025, the Trump DOJ denied it.

An independent auditor had praised the CRU as a "model for how statewide conviction integrity work should be done." Over nearly five years of operation, the unit reviewed more than 1,000 applications from people claiming wrongful conviction and overturned three convictions. Among its most significant cases was the exoneration of Edgar Barrientos-Quintana, who had spent 16 years in prison before the unit's three-year investigation revealed evidence withheld from his original jury.