On Tuesday, Nov. 10, the Juneau-Douglas City Museum will host a free evening public presentation by Averil Lerman on the last executions in Alaska. The talk begins at 7 p.m.
Two African-American men were hanged in Juneau after separate criminal trials, one in 1948, and one in 1950. They were the last men sentenced to death in Alaska. Each was hanged for the same 1946 murder of a Juneau shop-keeper.
A close look at the ways in which these convictions were obtained raises troubling questions about whether both of those men were really guilty. Interviews of participants in the events, and review of records kept by the courts, the police, the jail, and the FBI, suggest that neither trial was fair, and that vital information was never heard by either jury. Discussion of these cases illustrates some of the ways in which the criminal justice system can fail.
Averil Lerman is an Anchorage attorney who spent 20 years litigating the validity of criminal convictions in state and federal court, and now trains other lawyers in post-conviction practice. She has conducted an extensive investigation into events relating to the two Juneau trials, and is writing a book on the subject. Her research has been supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Alaska Native Justice Center. Lerman also serves on the board of the Alaska Historical Society.
Lerman presented her research at the joint Museums Alaska/Alaska Historical Society conference held in Cordova last month in a session titled Politics and Social Justice, and was invited to Juneau by the City Museum to present her topic and conduct further research.
For more information about the Museum, visit: www.juneau.org/museum or call 586-3572.
