Ramsey County Attorney's Office confirms six murder convictions after medical examiner criticized
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The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office has determined six of seven murder cases subjected to extensive review after the testimony of the former county medical examiner was questioned should be upheld. In the seventh case the county is sharing details of the review with the defendant, but not yet with the public.
Dr. Michael McGee was the Ramsey County chief medical examiner for more than three decades. McGee often testified in court about his findings. His testimony has been criticized several times over the years by judges and medical experts, though Ramsey County continued to back him after internal reviews.
Then, in 2021, a federal judge tossed a death sentence in a 2003 murder after calling McGee’s testimony “unreliable, misleading and inaccurate.” That prompted a more extensive review of more than 200 of McGee’s cases by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi announced the multi-year, multi-phase, $380,000 review process has been largely completed. The Prosecutors’ Center for Excellence led the initial phases of the review, and the Great North Innocence Project provided feedback during the final phase of the review before the county attorney’s office made its findings.
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Choi characterized McGee as “a product of his time.” Choi said in the final phase of review, independent medical examiners looked at seven of McGee’s cases that were determined to need additional analysis.
The medical examiners ultimately disagreed with how McGee phrased some answers in court — for example, using the legal term “assault” instead of the more neutral term “injured by others” — and said McGee sometimes seemed to overstate his confidence in his conclusions.
However, Choi said the three independent medical examiners agreed with McGee’s major findings — and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office found no reason to modify or overturn six of the seven murder convictions.
“We reviewed those concerns very carefully and ultimately determined that, while the criticisms were valid, they did not go to the aspects of the case that were key to determining the defendant's guilt,” Choi said.
Choi said the unnamed defendant in the seventh case pleaded guilty, was sentenced and already served their time in a case that involved a death. Choi said he believes the conviction should stand. However, his office won’t release details of that case’s review yet.
“We just want to give this information up and show the defendant this is what the medical committee said, and then we want the defense to tell us what they think,” Choi said.
Choi said a lesson from the review of McGee’s cases is that prosecutors should receive additional training to better understand the work of medical examiners and the limitations of their expertise.
Throughout his career, McGee also worked on cases for other counties in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Choi said this review was specific to Ramsey County.
“Everybody should be doing their due diligence with regard to those cases involving Dr. McGee in other places,” Choi said.
The Great North Innocence Project, which was consulted during the review, said it did not have comment on any of the specific cases or findings by the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office — but said it appreciated the office’s “willingness to undertake a review of these cases and to solicit perspectives from stakeholders with differing viewpoints.”
“We support initiatives by prosecutors to identify and rectify the mistakes that will inevitably occur in the criminal legal system. Meaningful review of prior convictions is necessary to ensure accuracy, transparency, and accountability,” the group said in a statement.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office has also been reviewing several cases it prosecuted in which McGee testified.
In 2023, the office overturned a 1998 murder conviction in which McGee provided pivotal testimony that Thomas Rhodes threw his wife overboard during a nighttime boat ride, and he ran her over. Rhodes claimed she had fallen accidentally and he frantically searched for her. A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office told MPR News in a statement that the review of McGee’s cases is “ongoing.”
Correction (June 24, 2026): This story has been updated to clarify the role of the Great North Innocence Project in the case review process.
