Man serving life sentence for murder 44 years ago requests compassionate release

SALT LAKE CITY — A man who has been incarcerated for 44 years, starting when he was 15, may be getting a compassionate release from the Utah State Prison due to his poor health.

John Pender Miller Jr., now 59, pleaded guilty in 1981 to first-degree murder in the strangulation death and sexual abuse of a 2-year-old Clinton girl. Miller, who was 15 at the time of the crime in 1980, was sentenced to up to life in prison.

But now, the Division of Correctional Health Services, which is under the umbrella of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, is recommending Miller be released from the Utah State Correctional Facility due to his medical condition.

During a special attention hearing on Tuesday before a member of the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, Miller was nonverbal and could only communicate by nodding or shaking his head or by waving or shaking his left hand.

“Give me a nod if you can hear me,” board member Blake Hills told Miller at the start of the hearing.

During the brief hearing, Miller would often take long pauses before trying to answer basic questions.

“Can you tell me your name? Do you know what your name is?” Hills asked before Miller gave an affirmative indication. “Are you 59 years old? Can you nod yes or no?”

Hills continued to ask questions to try and determine how well Miller, who was in a wheelchair, could care for himself, before then asking basic questions about his crime.

“Do you understand why you are in prison?” Hills asked. “Do you know you’re in prison for aggravated murder? … Does that sound like the charge you’re here for, aggravated murder?”

After pausing, Miller shook his hand indicating his response to the question was, “kind of.”

In 1980, Miller kidnapped 2-year-old Anne Hoskisson, sexually abused her, then choked her to death — first, using his hands and then a metal pipe. Miller hid the body in a crawl space near the attic of an abandoned building, then joined the estimated 900 searchers who spent several hours looking for the girl. During a parole hearing in 2001, Miller seemed unsure if he should be granted release.

“It’s a crime that’s hard to forgive,” he said. “I haven’t really forgiven myself for it.”

Miller has had his sentence reviewed several times by the board since 2001, which decided in 2013 that he should serve his entire life sentence. In 2023, Miller requested a redetermination hearing and the board scheduled a review of his case for January of this year.

In August, the board received a request from the Division of Correctional Health Services “requesting a compassionate release for Mr. Miller due to catastrophic medical issues.”

According to Miller’s attorney, Katherine Conyers, it has become “very difficult” for the prison to care for Miller due to the level of nursing care he requires and because Miller is unable to communicate.

“It sounds like he’s a very good candidate for compassionate release,” she said Tuesday.

The division is recommending Miller be released to a care facility. Conyers asked the board to hold off making its decision for two weeks until she could collect more information about where that facility might be. Hills agreed he would not forward Miller’s case to the full five-member board for voting until at least Sept. 17.

Correction: The Division of Correctional Health Services has requested the compassionate release for Miller. An earlier version quoted from a board of pardons memo that said the Utah Department of Corrections made the request. A corrections spokesman said it did not make the request.