DRAPER, Utah -- A man who fatally shot a Utah Highway Patrol trooper more than 40 years ago has been granted parole.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole voted to release Brian Keith Stack on Feb. 17, 2020, according to The Desert News.
Stack was driving a stolen pickup truck on Nov. 7, 1978, when he was stopped by Trooper Ray Lynn Pierson for a minor traffic violation on state Route 20. Pierson, who was unaware that Stack was a fugitive from Illinois, was shot without warning as he approached the truck.
Stack fled the scene and was arrested following a pursuit after he hit a police car set up as part of a blockade.
He eventually pleaded guilty in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. When he was sentenced, life in prison without the possibility of parole was not an option in Utah.
Pierson’s family believes Stack, now 59, should serve the rest of his life behind bars and has argued during Stack’s parole hearings that he won’t be able to adapt to a world that’s changed since he entered prison.
Stack is the second inmate in two years to be granted parole after serving a long sentence for killing a Utah Highway Patrol trooper.
In September 2018, Jason Scott Pearson, who was 18 when he shot and killed Trooper Dennis "Dee" Lund, during a high-speed pursuit on I-70 near Green River on June 16, 1993, was also granted parole.
