Aitkin County Man in Prison for 26 Years Freed After Sentence is Commuted

A 63-year-old Aitkin County man who spent 26 years in prison for a 1998 murder has been released and his sentence commuted.

Previously, a jury convicted Brian Pippitt for first-degree premeditated murder in the death of 84-year-old Evelyn Malin, who owned a convenience store in McGregor.

The Minnesota Board of Pardons voted in September 2025 to commute the sentence of Pippitt. Prior to that in April 2025, the Minnesota Clemency Review Commission recommended that Pippitt’s sentence be commuted. In recommending Clemency, the commission emphasized the compelling proof of Pippitt’s factual innocence.

According to a press release from the Great North Innocence Project, there is no forensic or physical evidence connecting him to the crime, and his conviction tested solely on the perjured testimony of the two witnesses.