Man serving life sentence to be released after Hennepin County judge uses new sentence adjustment process

Hennepin County Judge Paul Scoggin adjusted the life sentence of Jerome Nunn, 49, to time served on Monday using the county’s Prosecutor-Initiated Sentence Adjustment (PISA), according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

Nunn’s sentence is the first one in Minnesota to be adjusted using PISA since its creation in February 2024, according to the attorney’s office.

Nunn was sentenced to life in prison as a 19-year-old after being convicted of murdering Abduel Poe in 1995. While in prison, Nunn earned his GED, three associates degrees, a paralegal certificate and was granted work release in 2023, the attorney’s office said.

Scoggin said Nunn used the nearly 30 years he served in a productive way and has impacted and grown with his community.

“PISA acknowledges that circumstances evolve over time, and some incarcerated individuals may no longer post a threat to public safety or serve the interests of justice by remaining in prison,” Scoggin said.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said Nunn is no longer a danger to the public and is an example of “a person’s capacity to change” through his work helping people released from prison find stability with EMERGE Community Development.

“As prosecutors, we seek justice,” Moriarty said. “When the community is no longer best served by a prison sentence, it is our responsibility to consider adjusting those sentences in a fair and transparent manner.”

Moriarty filed a petition for Nunn’s sentence adjustment using PISA last October. Danielle Jones, Poe’s mother, signed the petition for Nunn’s release and has advocated for Nunn’s release for the past decade, according to the attorney’s office.

The attorney’s office said more than 300 applications have been reviewed since February 2024 and are working with the Department of Corrections to streamline requests for prison records and access to PISA applications.