State And Federal Info
Nelson Charles, an Alaskan Native, was the first person executed in Juneau. He was hanged in 1939 for murdering his mother-in-law, and was the only man hanged in Alaska for the murder of a woman. Read a full description of the Charles case here.
The abolition measure passed by the Alaska Territorial Legislature in 1957 stated simply: “The death penalty is and shall hereafter be abolished as punishment in Alaska for the commission of any crime.”
Alaska as a state has never had a death penalty. The Territorial Legislature abolished capital punishment two years before Alaska gained statehood.
Prior to 1899, miner’s courts handled legal matters in Alaska. Seven people are estimated to have been executed under that system.
There were only eight legal executions in Alaska between 1900 and 1957. Two of the men hanged were white, three were Alaska Natives, two were black and one was an immigrant from Montenegro. Records before 1900 are poor, but it is believed that a total of seven persons were hanged in territorial Alaska from 1869 to 1900.
Arbitrariness
May 16, 2018
State and federal prosecutors have agreed to withdraw the death penalty in exchange for guilty pleas by defendants charged with multiple killings in two unrelated high-profile murder cases. On May 4, Lake County, Indiana
History of the Death Penalty
Oct 16, 2014
DPIC has recently added four podcasts to our new series on important facts about the death penalty in each state. Seven state podcasts are now available: Michigan,
History of the Death Penalty
Aug 11, 2011
DPIC is pleased to announce the addition of five more states to one of our latest resources, the State Information Pages. Adding to the original 15 state pages made available earlier, pages for
Arbitrariness
Jan 24, 2011
An in-depth investigation conducted by USA Today found 201 criminal cases in which federal judges determined that U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors violated laws or ethics rules, including the recent…
