When witnesses found 39 year old Kristy Manzanares dead in a cabin along with her husband, Kenneth Manzanares, who had blood covering his hands and clothing, the Emerald Princess was cruising just north of the Canadian border in waters beyond state jurisdiction.
Manzanares was taken into custody by ship security personnel and arrested after the ship docked in Juneau, placing the case in federal hands at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Manzanares pleaded not guilty in court on wednesday, where Federal Prosecutor Jack Schmidt noted the maximum penalty for the charge is life in prison or the death penalty. The judge granted Schmidt 60 days to determine whether the government would elect to seek the death penalty in this case.
Had the incident taken place within Alaskan waters, the death penalty would not be on the table. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the Territorial Legislature abolished capital punishment two years before Alaska gained statehood. Prior to 1899, miner’s courts handled legal matters in Alaska, and seven people are estimated to have been executed under that system.
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| Rich Curtner |
Federal Public Defender Rich Curtner: “There was six people who were hung under the death penalty in territorial days, from 1900 and when it was abolished in 1957. Those six people were three Alaska Natives, two African American, and one guy from Montengero….just…demonstrates…racial bias.”
When ever the call comes up to consider instating a death penalty in Alaska, those who have worked in the criminal justice system wave injustices like incarceration of the Fairbanks Four, and suggest that justice is blind, not deaf and dumb.
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| Paul Ongtooguk |
Ashton & Dewey attorney Fred Dewey: “It’s a bad idea because our justice system is imperfect. Having been a participant in it for 35 years, I know that is the case….It’s an irreparable harm to people who are potentially innocent, and I don’t think we have a good system in terms of ferreting those people out.”
UAA Professor Paul Ongtooguk: “The death penalty is morally and ethically defensible only if you know that your criminal justice system is 100% accurate, because if it is less than that you are making a mistake which would amount to murder by the State.”
Story as aired on KSRM News:
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