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The Aitkin County Attorney’s Office is opposing the release of a man who alleges that he was wrongfully convicted for a 1998 murder.

In June, the Minnesota Attorney General's conviction review unit 

Pippitt, now 62, is serving a life sentence after a jury found him guilty of strangling and beating storekeeper Evelyn Malin, 84, in the home attached to her convenience store in McGregor. 

Attorneys with the Great North Innocence Project and Centurion, nonprofits that advocate for people who are wrongfully convicted, argue that prosecutors presented unreliable witnesses, including a jailhouse informant, and that the crime scene had been “staged” to make it appear as if the killers had entered Malin’s the building through a basement window in an effort to bolster the state’s theory of the case.

In a Monday filing, Assistant Aitkin County Attorneys Lisa Roggenkamp Rakotz and Sebastian Mesa argue that in 2002, the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that the witness testimony was consistent with the physical evidence presented at trial, and that the conviction review unit is presenting “simply a different theory of the case based on the same evidence.”

Jim Mayer, one of Pippitt’s attorneys, told MPR News on Monday that he’s disappointed in the prosecutors’ move, and fears that it could be “months or years” before Pippitt is freed.

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The Aitkin County Attorney’s Office is opposing the release of a man serving a life sentence for a 1998 murder who alleges that he was wrongfully convicted. The Minnesota Attorney General’s conviction review unit recommended in June that Brian Pippitt be exonerated. 

Aitkin County prosecutors oppose release of man serving life for 1998 murder

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