Ex-Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor's resentencing is scheduled for Oct. 21

The resentencing of fired Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor, convicted in 2019 for the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, is scheduled for Oct. 21, one day after his 36th birthday.

The hearing follows the Minnesota Supreme Court's overturning on Sept. 15 of the third-degree murder conviction, which paves the way for Noor to likely have eight years shaved off his prison sentence when he hears his fate on the remaining second-degree manslaughter count.

The high court's decision rejected a February ruling by the state Court of Appeals that upheld the murder conviction against Noor, who is serving a 12 ½-year term for fatally shooting Damond in 2017 while responding to her 911 call about a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her southwest Minneapolis home.

In its unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court affirmed what Noor's lawyers have claimed since trial — that third-degree murder didn't apply because his actions were focused on a single person.

Jurors convicted Noor in 2019 of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

The reversal vacating the murder conviction sends Noor back to court to be resentenced solely on the manslaughter count. Several local lawyers and one of Noor's defense attorneys, Peter Wold, said Noor is likely to receive about four years in prison on the lower count — the term recommended by state sentencing guidelines for defendants like Noor who have no criminal history.

Noor entered prison on May 2, 2019, and has since served about 29 months. Under state sentencing guidelines, prisoners must serve two-thirds of their sentence before they are eligible for supervised release. If Noor is resentenced to four years, he could be released in about three months.

Still to be decided is whether Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance will grant news media requests to livestream the proceedings, as was done earlier this year for the trial of Derek Chauvin, another fired Minneapolis officer, who was convicted of killing George Floyd in May 2020. Noor's trial and initial sentencing were not livestreamed.

One factor present this time that was not a factor when Noor was first sentenced is caution about courtroom access in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Until the Supreme Court's reversal, Noor had been the first officer in Minnesota to be convicted of murder for an on-duty killing. Now Chauvin is the only officer in the state to be convicted of murder.

Jurors found Chauvin guilty in April of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for killing Floyd outside a south Minneapolis convenience store. It's unclear what impact the Noor ruling will have on Chauvin's conviction or the aiding and abetting third-degree murder charges against Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane, the other three officers who await trial in Floyd's death.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482