Tim Walz has a chance to right a clear wrong -- but needs a little push to do it
During the week of the DNC we reported on the unusual case of a wrongful conviction in northern Minnesota that the state’s attorney general, Keith Ellison, was attempting to make right in the face of intransigence from the local prosecutor and sheriff. What makes it unusual is that the state’s governor, Tim Walz, does not have the unilateral ability to pardon the wrongfully convicted man, Brian Pippitt, but he can step in and take the case away from the local prosecutor and give it to AG Ellison. With that one, small bureaucratic move, Walz can give Ellison the chance to set him free.
After reporter Ted Hamm laid out the details of the case in this report for Drop Site News — and Jessica Burbank helped bring attention to it on social media — a number of organizations focused on criminal justice raised their hand to say they wanted to help right this wrong. They’ve joined together to sponsor a petition urging Walz to sign the papers that would empower Ellison to take this case over. They’ll present this petition to Walz a few days from now, and if we can have thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people sign it, there’s a good chance that’ll be enough to get his attention.
Please take a moment to check out the petition urging Tim Walz to take this simple step.
Separately, on this week’s podcast I interviewed David Sirota about The Lever’s incredible new show called Master Plan, an investigative history of the legalization of corruption. Highly recommend it.
You can read Ted Hamm’s original story on Brian Pippitt here.
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