Interior

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George Frese, Eugene Vent and Kevin Pease are free after 18 years in prison. They were released Thursday in Fairbanks after the court approved a settlement in the case of the murder of 15-year-old John Hartman. The other member of the Fairbanks Four was Marvin Roberts, who was paroled in June.

The outcome is a big win for the Alaska Innocence Project. Executive director Bill Oberly has spent the past six years trying to free the men.

In an interview with APRN’s Lori Townsend, Oberly described the scene in the courtroom when the men were freed. He says as the settlement was finalized, the judge asked the courtroom to remain quiet.

OBERLY: We had been instructed as attorneys to remain seated. Our clients, who were still in custody and had leg irons on, would get up and walk out and only then could we stand up. So they controlled how the scene ended. But I can tell you, when the judge walked off the bench there was a moment of silence. I think it was just sinking in and then the whole place exploded. Tears and hugs — that lasted, through to their gathering at the tribal hall in Fairbanks. I left at 10:30 or 11 p.m. and it was still going strong.

TOWNSEND: What was included in the settlement? There’s been some confusion over whether the men are maintaining their innocence.

OBERLY: There should be no confusion about that. They are, have been and will always maintain their innocence. They are innocent. The parties agreed, the court signed off that there was new evidence not presented in court in their trials and that in the interest of justice demanded new trials. Their convictions were vacated, which took it back to the pretrial stage, and then the state dismissed their indictments — so that means they have no convictions. They stand convicted of no crimes. When they fill out a (job) application, if it says, ‘Have you been convicted of a felony?’ they can check no. From the four young men’s point of view, that’s what we went in looking for when we first filed in 2013. That’s what we got.

TOWNSEND: The state attorney general says this is not an exoneration. What does he mean by that and how much does that matter to you and the young men, the Fairbanks Four?

OBERLY: What he means by that, you’re going to have to ask the attorney general because they are free and they have no record. If that’s not an exoneration, I’m not sure what is. Under my definition and under, I think, the dictionary definition — this is an exoneration. And that means a lot to the boys. They would not have resolved this if they had to maintain convictions. Their two requirements were we want our names cleared and we want to get out. Anything less than that they would not have taken.

TOWNSEND: As part of the agreement, the four men cannot sue the state for compensation for being incarcerated. Is it unusual to give up that ability to sue for compensation from the state?

OBERLY: To be honest, I don’t know. I know that in other jurisdictions there are other terms. It’s a negotiation. It’s not something the young men wanted to give up, but it was something the state required if they wanted to get out now, as opposed to waiting for the judge’s decision. And they didn’t want to spend more time in prison.

TOWNSEND: After spending 18 years in prison, the road ahead won’t be easy for the four men. Based on other Innocence Project work around the country, what do we know about how difficult it is to rejoin society after so many years in prison?

OBERLY: I think it depends on the individual. The examples of people exonerated in other states kind of runs the gamut, but in every case it’s difficult. From my understanding, there’s a honeymoon period where things keep getting better and better… and there is a time when they crash. These young men have a whole community — a whole state — to support them. So I’m hoping the inevitable crash, when it comes, will mean the people who are around them will step up and help them. They walked out of prison with nothing. Things that they had collected in prison — a television, books and things like that — they gave away. They left it at the facility. They left only with their paperwork and nothing else. They didn’t even have a toothbrush. And I’m not sure they even got one last night. That was one of the things people realized late in the evening. ‘We haven’t gotten them a toothbrush yet!’

Golden Valley Electric Association is favoring oil over natural gas to fuel large generators in North Pole. The move reduces the utility’s role as an anchor tenant for the state-backed Interior Energy Project.

Golden Valley Electric Association is committing to a reduced quantity of natural gas from the Interior Energy Project — a little over half a billion cubic feet of natural gas per year when the project comes on line in 2017. That’s well short of a predicted 2 billion cubic feet.

GVEA present and CEO Corey Borgeson says the utility is instead moving ahead with a contract to buy naphtha from the local Petro Start refinery.

The decision to go with naphtha backs down Golden Valley’s commitment to buy 3 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas, to a little over half a billion cubic feet a year. Borgeson says the Petro Star naphtha comes in $7-70 million dollars cheaper than projected LNG prices over 10 years.

Golden Valley’s board of director made the decision to commit to naphtha at a meeting Monday, despite requests from local leaders that they delay until the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority lead IEP firms up a natural gas plan and price. Golden Valley was targeted as an anchor tenant for the Interior Energy Project and Local AIDEA Board member and former state legislator Gary Wilken is disappointed with the utility’s decision.

“It was a surprise,” Wilken said. “It was frankly a blow to the stomach. I’m not particularly happy about it … I don’t think GVEA fulfilled their obligation to be a community partner in this.”

GVEA’s purchase of IEP’s gas will be during the summer months — a focus that will balance out winter heating demand. But Wilken maintains the lesser commitment will make it more difficult to make a target gas price, equivalent to $2/gallon heating oil.

GVEA’s Borgeson says the utility could not wait for the IEP plan to develop and needed to give Petro Star an answer on naphtha.

“They needed to go forward,” Borgeson said. “They’re going to have to invest about $20 million of capital in order to develop the naphtha splitter that they need to do to make the fuel… and we had to make a commitment to Petro Star to go forward on this deal.”

Under the 12-year contract, Petro Star agrees to drop the price GVEA pays for naphtha as of Jan. 1 while it builds a new facility to produce a lighter blend of the fuel. Borgeson adds that the contract includes off ramps, allowing increased future use of natural gas, and that GVEA’s North Pole generators will be set up to burn both fuels.

Update|7:30 p.m.

Three of the Fairbanks Four were released Thursday evening. While one of the men, Marvin Roberts, had been released in June on parole, the other three men were still behind bars 18 years after being convicted for murder of 15-year-old John Hartman. The men say they didn’t commit the crime. George Frese, Kevin Pease, Eugene Vent and Roberts were celebrated at the Chief David Salmon Tribal Hall in Fairbanks.

Head over to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner for more on this story.
-Jennifer Canfield

Update|5:40 p.m.

The brother of a Fairbanks teenager killed in 1997 says he’s flabbergasted at the deal reached Thursday that throws out the convictions of four indigenous men deemed responsible for the beating death.

Chris Kelly tells The Associated Press that he can’t believe the deal was made between prosecutors and the men. Kelly says it feels like his family has been “completely wronged” by the agreement.

“Only guilty people would take that deal,” Kelly said. He also voiced his objections at Thursday’s hearing.

The four men have long maintained their innocence. They were seeking to have their convictions overturned in civil court when the state made a surprise offer to free them. In exchange, the men can’t sue various government entities, among other provisions.

Many Alaska Natives believe the convictions of the four men were racially based.
-Associated Press

Update|5:30 p.m.

“Justice prevails!”

Those were the words from Alaska’s senior U.S. senator after the so-called Fairbanks Four were released on Thursday.

The four men were convicted of beating a Fairbanks teenager to death in 1997, but many called their convictions a rush to judgment based on their race. Three of the men convicted are Alaska Natives and the other is an American Indian.

In a statement, Sen. Lisa Murkowski praised the lawyers that took up their case, including the Alaska Innocence Project.

Murkowski, a Republican, had previously asked the state of Alaska to examine whether the convictions were just. She also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to determine if there were any civil rights violations in the case.
-Associated Press

Update|5:15 p.m.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker is hailing the agreement that will release the so-called Fairbanks Four, four indigenous men who have been imprisoned since their convictions in 1997 for the beating death of a Fairbanks teenager.

The four have long maintained their innocence. They were seeking to have their convictions overturned in civil court when the state made a surprise offer to free them. In exchange, the men can’t sue various government entities, among other provisions. A state judge approved the deal Thursday, throwing out the men’s murder convictions.

Some in the Alaska Native community had considered the convictions of the four men as racially based, and there had been pressure on Walker to pardon the men.

In a statement Thursday, Walker says he’s pleased that a mutually acceptable agreement could be reached among all parties.

Walker says he hopes this beings the healing process and provides “some measure of justice and closure” for the four men.
-Associated Press

Original story published at 5:03 p.m.

This is a developing story. Please check back later for details. 

A Fairbanks judge has dismissed the indictments and convictions of four men who have served 18 years in jail for a murder they say they did not commit.

According to Fairbanks reporters, more than 150 people gathered outside a courtroom on the fifth floor of the Rabinowitz courthouse. Some had been there since 9 a.m. waiting to hear if the men would be released in time for Christmas. More than 50  people were let into the courtroom around 4:15 p.m.

Indictments and convictions against George Frese, Kevin Pease, Marvin Roberts and Eugene Vent were thrown out as a result of a deal between the men and state prosecutors.

Last week prosecutors offered to let the Fairbanks Four go free as long as it could maintain that the men were guilty and that they’d no longer claim innocence. The men have maintained their innocence for the 18 years they were in prison and with today’s deal they may continue to do so.
-Jennifer Canfield

 

The Interior village of Beaver’s school will remain open, despite a below-par student count this fall. The Yukon Flats Village School District lost state funding when a 10-student minimum wasn’t met, but at a school board meeting Tuesday, village first chief Rhonda Pitka says a decision was made to continue operating the school at a reduced level, at least through next May.

“The school board voted to keep the Beaver school open for the remainder of the school year. There were a few positions that were cut. They cut instructional aides, food services, the Gwich’in language instructor, and, I believe, custodial services also,” Pitka says.

Pitka says the eliminated positions were part-time. The Beaver School’s only remaining staff member is a full-time teacher, who works with students ranging from kindergarten through high school. Pitka says the school’s status will be re-evaluated, adding that the district plans to petition the state for another head count, after coming up short last fall.

“There were three students who weren’t in Beaver at that time. They are in Beaver now. So we’re at 11 students right now.”
She says two new kindergarteners are expected to enroll next year, potentially taking the Beaver School to 13 students, above the required number for state funding. She says the school’s annual operating budget is about $460,000, noting that heating and other costs are high in the remote Yukon Flats village.

Supporters of the Fairbanks Four rallied outside the state courthouse in Fairbanks on Friday. The protest was spurred by a proposed settlement in the long contested case of the four Native men who claim they were wrongfully convicted for the 1997 murder of John Hartman.

The settlement proposed by attorneys representing the Fairbanks Four and the state of Alaska would free George Frese, Kevin Pease and Eugene Vent. Marvin Roberts is already out on parole.

The deal would also require the four men withdraw claims of innocence, and not pursue compensation for wrongful conviction.

Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle issued an order Thursday canceling a scheduled Friday hearing on the agreement, questioning the legality of freeing men the state maintains are guilty, and wants the right to re-try if new information becomes available about John Hartman’s murder.

Lyle’s order does not outright reject the settlement, but gives attorneys 10 days to justify or alter it, noting the potential for clemency or pardon. Tanana Chiefs Conference justice task force chair Shirley spoke against the proposed settlement at a Friday rally for the Fairbanks Four.

Fairbanks Four Supporter, Misty Nickoli went on to challenge Gov. Bill Walker to step forward and free the men.

The current situation follows a hearing this fall on post-conviction relief petitions filed by the Fairbanks Four. The five-week proceeding heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including a former Fairbanks man and jailed for unrelated killings, who claims a high school friend, not the Fairbanks Four, killed Hartman.

Judge Lyle has anticipated taking more than six months to review evidence before issuing a ruling in the case.

Interior elder Sidney C. Huntington died Tuesday in Galena. He was 100 years old. He leaves behind not only a long list of accomplishments but an entire philosophy of life.

Sidney’s biography could go on for hours. His story is so intertwined with the story of Alaska over the past century.

His dad came to the territory of Alaska during the Klondike gold rush. He watched the villages of the middle Yukon and lower Koyukuk valleys transition from isolated, subsistence-based settlements to communities with satellite dishes, snowmachines, and multimillion dollar schools.

But like the villages themselves, Huntington never abandoned subsistence. As he explained in a 1996 interview for the oral history series “Raven’s Story,” Sidney took pride in living close to the land, even after his trapping days were over.

“The change in life has been dramatic. For me to say that I have changed very much … I imagine I have, to quite a degree to keep up with the times. But my variety of food, and what I do, has not changed very dramatically, only I have adapted myself to the new methods of harvesting wildlife resources. And I have a deep respect, probably a deeper respect for wildlife resources than anybody in the country.”

Never lacking in confidence, Sidney did many different kinds of work during his life: hunting, fishing, trapping, boat building, carpentry, mining, fish processing. He served on the Board of Game for 17 years and helped create predator control programs and controlled-use areas to protect moose populations in the Interior. He had a huge family.

He leaves a legacy in Galena not only in terms of what he did but how he did it.

Sidney insisted on the value of hard work and despised government handouts. He was legendary for starting his work early in the morning, working late into the night, and doing it all again the next day.

Though he only had a third-grade education, he was a strong supporter for public education in rural Alaska. Someone else in his position might say, “You don’t need to go to school. I only went through third grade and look at me now.”

He took the opposite approach. He wanted rural kids to have the formal education that he never had. He loved meeting students at Galena’s boarding school and considered himself a father to all of them. The Galena K-12 school is already named after him and has been for 10 years.

But what I think is the most interesting legacy that Sidney Huntington leaves behind is the new Alaska identity that he forged. He was half Alaska Native, half white, and didn’t consider himself a full member of either of those camps. He drew lessons from books, boarding schools and Native elders alike to build a lifestyle based on practicality, preparation, and respect.

Each of those values is on display in this outtake from “Raven’s Story,” in which he describes his wolf trapping techniques.

“I wouldn’t tell anybody how I trap wolves. That is not the historic way of doing it. They say you give your luck away and you can’t catch them anymore,” Huntington said. “Well, I’m about over the hill anyways so it doesn’t make much difference. I generally trap on glare ice, and wolf trapping I’ve found is a lot of work, a lot of work. Dedicated work. You are trapping a very cautious, wary animal. The only thing that gets him, he’s like you and me, he wants to know what is on the other side of the fence.”

Clever, iconoclastic, and ultimately — practical. That was Sidney Huntington.

And of course, Sidney left us his book, “Shadows on the Koyukuk.” It’s become more a reference book than a biography at my house, and I try to reread every year. It never ceases to be a fascinating look back at how Alaska used to be, but also an inspiration to the challenges that lie ahead of us.

I never managed to have Sidney autograph it. But we have a table he built in our cabin, and that seems good enough.