Banished Man Is Released From Prison

A Tlingit Indian who spent a year of banishment on two remote Alaskan islands as part of a sentence for beating and robbing a pizza deliveryman was released from custody. “It’s been a long time coming for this day,” said Simon Roberts, 21. In addition to banishment, Roberts spent the last 26 months in state prison. Roberts was 16 in October 1993 when he struck the deliveryman on the head with an aluminum baseball bat during a robbery. A state judge deferred sentencing and turned the Roberts and his accomplice, Adrian Guthrie--both from Klawock, Alaska--over to a tribal court, which imposed the banishment. Guthrie, 21, was released in 1996 but is back behind bars in Alaska.