Court Overrules Banishment Sentences for Alaska Youths

An appeals court ruled Monday that two Alaskan teen-agers banished by their tribe for the brutal 1993 beating of a pizza delivery man ultimately will have to serve full sentences in a Washington state prison.

The Washington State Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court judge overstepped his authority when he said the planned 18-month banishment could serve to reduce mandatory prison sentences for Simon Roberts and Adrian Guthrie, members of Alaska’s Tlingit tribe.

Roberts and Guthrie, both 18, pleaded guilty last year to assault charges in the baseball-bat beating of delivery man Tim Whittlesey, who was left with permanent damage to his sight and hearing from the attack about 30 miles north of Seattle. Roberts and Guthrie netted $40 and a pizza in the crime.

Under Washington state guidelines, Guthrie faces 31 to 41 months in prison while Roberts, who wielded the bat, faces 55 to 65 months. In a ruling that gained international attention, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer had delayed sentencing until March, 1996, and released the two young men to tribal elders, who banished them for a period of reflection and wilderness living.