A Minnesota prosecutor is seeking the release of a man in prison for 27 years for murder after a key witness recanted her testimony and confessed to the crime.

A judge sentenced Brian Hooper Sr. to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years for the killing of Ann Prazniak. The star witness in the case has now confessed to the murder.

The conviction and life prison sentence of a man for the vicious murder of an elderly woman in her Minneapolis apartment nearly three decades ago was a failure of justice, according to the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and the Great North Innocence Project.