Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she will ask a Minnesota court to vacate the 1998 murder conviction of Bryan Hooper Sr. after the prosecution’s key witness recanted her trial testimony and admitted to killing 77-year-old Ann Prazniak. Hooper, now 54, has spent 27 years in prison for the Minneapolis killing and has consistently maintained his innocence. The witness, currently serving an unrelated sentence in a Georgia prison, contacted authorities in late July and gave multiple recorded statements confessing to the crime. Moriarty’s Conviction Review Unit and the Great North Innocence Project filed a joint petition citing the confession, earlier recantations by jailhouse informants and a lack of physical evidence tying Hooper to the murder. Under Minnesota procedure, a judge has up to 90 days to decide whether to set aside the conviction. Moriarty said the witness expects to face murder charges once Hooper’s case is resolved, adding that the state has “no interest in adding a single day” to the 9,976 days Hooper has already served.