Minnesota Murderer Runs For U.S. Senate From Prison

The one thing that you can say about Leonard Richards, 75, is that he is not your ordinary politician.  Where politicians often run on putting people into jail on a tough-on-crime platform, Richards started with himself and is currently serving a life sentence in a Minnesota prison. While that would bar him from running for a state office, he can run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Richards not only killed his half-sister, May Wilson, in 1982 but also killed his lawyer, Robert Stratton, in 1987.  A double murderer is not an ideal profile for most parties.  However, Stratton is still trying to sell his candidacy to Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party in its August 14th primary.

The candidate is obviously not winning over the family of his victims, as reported by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

He has previously run for office. In 1992, her received 14,500 votes for Congress, but his popularity appears to be waning.  IN 1994, he received only 4,000 votes.