Bad Evidence Got Him Indicted for Murder. He Waited 7 Years to Walk Free.

A rush of cold air fills the kitchen on a spring day in the Alaska Native village of Kipnuk as a man dusted in frost steps through the door. Justine Paul, age 34, silently mixes himself a glass of lemonade, drops into a chair and exhales into his lap. Soon, he retreats to his childhood bedroom, where he stares out the window studying how fast the clouds move - the way he’s always sensed a storm before it breaks. A metal baseball bat leans against the doorframe. When the Bering Sea wind bullies the house, Paul wonders if police listen through cracks in the walls. Waking beneath the Michael Jordan posters in his room, he sometimes fears he’s dreaming. That his body might still be 100 miles away, across the tundra in a 7.5-by-9-foot jail cell. Paul spent seven years in jail waiting to be tried on a murder charge built on bad evidence. The central clues that prosecutors relied on to connect him to the murder crumbled as soon as anyone checked. But it took dozens of delays, agreed to by a revolving cast of lawyers, before the state finally dropped the case in 2022, releasing Paul. Apart from one month on pretrial release, he’d been behind bars for 2,600 days. In a state court system that allows delay after delay before the accused goes on trial, Paul’s case is a reminder of why speedy trial rights exist in the first place: to prevent defendants from paying the price when police or prosecutors make mistakes. It is one of the most damning examples of Alaska’s slow-motion justice system, which takes more than twice as long to resolve the most serious felonies as it did a decade ago. The workings of Alaska’s justice system have an outsize impact on Alaska Natives like Paul, who are 18% of the state’s residents but 40% of people arrested. In recent years, they have edged out white Alaskans as the largest group held in state jails and prisons. Time lost while Paul was locked up and in the years since have left the murder victim’s family waiting for someone to face a jury so the truth can be known. State police only this year reopened the investigation into who fatally stabbed Eunice Whitman, Paul’s girlfriend. Her sister Heather Whitman said she was surprised when a reporter told her that troopers are actively working the case once again. Whitman was unaware of the reasons cited for dismissing Paul’s case and said she still assumes he is guilty. The absence of consequences for anyone in her sister’s death has left the family bitter. An attorney who helped to ultimately get Paul’s charges dropped said the case is the first that comes to mind when people ask how lawyers can represent those accused of violent crimes. Beyond the fact that everybody deserves a good defense, some defendants may be truly innocent. “Those are the ones that are super stressful,” said defense attorney Windy Hannaman. “To think that...

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