SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole is once again considering whether to grant a “compassionate release” to a man who has been incarcerated for 45 years.

But a cousin of the 2-year-old girl whom 60-year-old John Pender Miller Jr. sexually assaulted and killed in 1980 when he was 15, says the state should stick to its decision of letting Miller serve out his entire life sentence in prison.

“Mr. Miller forfeited the right to have a preference on his living conditions when he accepted the plea of life in prison without the possibility of parole. If the standard for release was an inmate’s happiness level, we would definitely have no overcrowding,” Kristie Wilkins said in a recording of Tuesday’s hearing.

“They cannot simply say, ‘It has become too hard to care for the per

See Full Page