AITKIN COUNTY, Minn. — The Aitkin County Attorney’s Office says it will fight the release of a man a state panel claims was wrongly convicted of a 1998 murder.
Brian Pippitt has served more than two decades behind bars for the murder of 84-year-old Evelyn Malin at a rural convenience store near the tiny town of McGregor, Minnesota.
Earlier this year, the Conviction Review Unit (CRU) of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office found serious problems with the case. The CRU wrote it was “implausible for Pippitt to commit the crime,” according to the prosecution’s theory – and recommended he be “exonerated.”
In court papers filed Monday, the county attorney rejected that recommendation – arguing there is no legal basis to overturn the conviction.
Case background
The Attorney General’s review began more than two years ago when Jim Cousins, an attorney for Centurion Ministries – a national nonprofit that advocates for wrongly convicted inmates – presented new evidence his group uncovered.
“We determined that Brian Pippitt is completely innocent of the murder of Evelyn Malin. He was not involved in that crime whatsoever,” Cousins said in an interview with KARE 11.
After reviewing thousands of pages of materials and interviewing more than 25 facts and expert witnesses, the CRU agreed, recommending that Pippitt be granted post-conviction relief based on his actual innocence.
Attorney General Keith Ellison endorsed the recommendation, saying: “Our goal is to ensure that no innocent person is serving time in a Minnesota prison for a crime they did not commit." It marked the first time the CRU had recommended the full exoneration of an incarcerated person.
Citing that finding, Cousins – in partnership with the Minneapolis-based Great North Innocence Project – filed a formal court petition for post-conviction relief.
Among the evidence the cited in the petition, reports from experts saying the basement window prosecutors claimed the killer entered was too small for a man like Pippitt to break into without leaving evidence. The experts concluded the pattern of broken glass suggested the crime scene has been staged. The petition also claimed that two key witnesses against Pippitt had recanted and that his public defender at the time failed to present important evidence.
Aitkin County response
In its response, Aitkin County argued that Pippitt is not entitled to post-conviction relief because his conviction was “based on reliable evidence” and was already upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Assistant Aitkin County Attorney Lisa Roggenkamp Rakotz argued the expert opinions quoted in petition “do not constitute newly discovered evidence” under the law – and that new statements by witnesses don’t really add up to recantations of their trial testimony.
She wrote that the theory that an adult man couldn’t have been able to pass through the basement window without injuring themselves or leaving a trace of fabric behind is “easily" disproven by a recent recreation conducted by the BCA.
Aitkin County asks the court to dismiss the petition “in its entirety.”
A judge must rule next on whether to hold a hearing on the issue.