ST. PAUL — A man found guilty of a 1998 Aitkin County murder will be released from prison over a year after the Office of the Minnesota Attorney General's Conviction Review Unit recommended his exoneration.
The Minnesota Board of Pardons — which consists of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Chief Justice Natalie Hudson — voted Wednesday, Sept. 24, to commute the sentence of Brian Pippitt, who has spent over two decades in prison.
Pippitt and four other Native American men were accused of burglarizing 84-year-old beloved storekeeper Evelyn Malin’s convenience store for beer and cigarettes. Malin was killed in the burglary.
In June 2024, the review unit announced it had found "insurmountable reasonable doubt" about Pippitt’s conviction.
The Conviction Review Unit was created in 2020 and aims to identify, remedy and prevent wrongful convictions.
According to the review of Pippitt's case, unreliable, incentivized witnesses connected Pippitt to the murder and later recanted; the prosecutor’s theory of the case was implausible; key evidence exonerating Pippitt was overlooked; and two alternative suspects with apparent motive, means and opportunity were never fully investigated.
Additionally, Pippitt’s counsel admitted to not being able to competently represent him due to being under-experienced and overburdened, and the county attorney who prosecuted him was later disbarred.
Three law enforcement professionals rebutted the findings, and Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida — who has been with the office since before Malin's murder — sent his own letter outlining concerns to the Conviction Review Unit.
The Board of Pardons voted to commute Pippitt’s sentence based on good behavior and the length of time served compared to his co-defendants, all of whom served significantly less or none at all.
"I am glad Mr. Pippitt’s sentence was commuted today, and I am proud of the work my office’s Conviction Review Unit did to help get us to this point,” said Attorney General Keith Ellison in a news release.
“I created our Conviction Review Unit because, while no system of justice is perfect, we should always strive for perfection and when wrong is done, we must work to correct it. I will continue to do everything I can to help build a more perfect justice system that does right by all Minnesotans.”
