In 2021, Moriarty announced her candidacy as a reform candidate to lead the prosecutor’s office after Freeman announced he would retire. She spent 31 years as a public defender, rising to chief public defender in Hennepin County before the Minnesota Board of Public Defenders declined in 2020 to reappoint her following controversies, including a suspension. She campaigned in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and focused on what she saw as the erosion of trust between the County Attorney’s Office and community members.
When asked if she was concerned that her decision to leave could undermine the structural and data-driven changes she has implemented inside the office, Moriarty said it’s clear that Hennepin County wants progressive leadership around criminal justice and public safety. She believes she would have won re-election and that another progressive candidate will resonate with voters and keep the office moving in a similar direction.
“When I campaigned there were all kinds of attacks on me, but I won by 16 points,” Moriarty said. “That was because I talked about a new way of doing things in the system that were actually more equitable, they were more trauma informed, they were more about what actually keeps us safe, and so I firmly believe that voters will, again, elect somebody who has those values, who intends to do the actual work. I feel comfortable with that.”
She also said that several institutional changes she has made will have a lasting effect no matter who is in charge, including reorganizing divisions to implementing data tools to drive prosecutorial decisionmaking.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty sits in a meeting at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis in 2023. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Since taking office, Moriarty has placed an emphasis on data and research that has led her office to consider elements as diverse as juvenile brain development, recidivism rates and the benefit of diversion programs vs. incarceration for people charged with crimes in Hennepin County.