Minnesota Board of Pardons commutes sentence from 1998 Aitkin County murder

SAINT PAUL, Min. – Minnesota Board of Pardons voted to commute the sentence of Brian Pippitt, who spent over two decades in prison following a conviction of first-degree murder in 2001.

The Board voted to commute Pippitt’s sentence based on good behavior in prison and the length of time Pippitt served in prison compared to his codefendants.

In 2024 there was a recommendation from the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office that Pippitt be exonerated based on, “the insurmountable reasonable doubt of Pippitt’s guilt.”

The recommendation was based on the CRU’s extensive, independent investigation of the conviction. The CRU issued a 118-page report documenting its investigation and the rationale for its recommendation.

On February 2, 2001, Brian Pippitt was found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder.

Pippitt was accused of murdering Evelyn Malin, a beloved 84-year-old storekeeper in Aitkin County.

Malin was discovered on the morning of February 24, 1998, beaten and strangled in the living quarters that were connected to her convenience store.

In announcing the commutation Attorney General Keith Ellison said, “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… 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.”