Edgar Paul Boyko (October 19, 1918 – January 1, 2002) was an Austrian-born Alaskan attorney. He served as Attorney General for the State of Alaska under the administration of Governor Walter Hickel from 1967 to 1968.
Edgar Boyko was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 19, 1918, to Myron David, an eye doctor, and Florence Boyko, an opera singer. He attended the University of Vienna, but after the German annexation of Austria in 1938, he moved to Scotland. Boyko completed a degree in chemistry at St. Andrews University where he married his high school girlfriend Blanka Kohn. In 1939, the couple emigrated to the United States, where Boyko worked several jobs before receiving a law degree from the University of Maryland in 1945.
Boyko moved to Alaska in 1952 to work as an attorney for the Bureau of Land Management. The next year, he entered private practice, eventually practicing law in both Alaska and California. He became known for mounting daring defenses in difficult cases, as well as for his theatrical and idiosyncratic style. Boyko said a trial should be a performance for the jury. He wore a pinstripe suit, a vest and gold jewelry, and in later years added a cane. He was known to use astrology in the process of jury selection.
In 1956, Boyko defended Jack Marler, a former Internal Revenue Service agent accused of tax evasion. Despite a prosecution by later-Senator Ted Stevens, Marler was acquitted on a defense of "no taxation without representation", with Boyko citing the Territory of Alaska's lack of representation in the U.S. Congress. [1]
Boyko was appointed Attorney General for Alaska during the first administration of Governor Walter J. Hickel, from 1967 to 1968. Boyko helped to form the Governor's Task Force on Native Land Claims which led to the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971
Back in private practice, Boyko's clients included Wesley Ladd (brought into the Boyko office by Boyko associate Robert T. Stange who was at one point called as a prosecution witness), accused in the 1972 murder of Ferris Rezk. Ladd was acquitted despite eyewitness testimony but later charged with the 1973 murder of Johnny Rich, who had testified for the prosecution in the Rezk case. When Ladd called Boyko/Stange to represent him in the Rich case, Boyko responded, "Sorry, only one miracle per customer." [2]
Boyko wrote a newspaper column and hosted a radio talk show, both called The Roar of the Snow Tiger, which offered his political views and commentary. Boyko was a lifelong Democrat, but in 1990 he joined the Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) to assist former governor Walter Hickel in taking over AIP's spot on the ballot and winning the governorship.
After suffering a series of strokes in 1998, Boyko moved to the Seattle area in 1999. He died January 1, 2002, in a Des Moines, Washington hospital.
Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. was an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009.
The Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) is an Alaskan nationalist political party in the United States that advocates for an in-state referendum which would include the option of Alaska becoming an independent country. The party also advocates positions similar to those of the Constitution Party, Republican Party and Libertarian Party, supporting gun rights, anti-abortion policies, privatization, homeschooling, and limited government.
Walter Joseph Hickel was an American businessman, real estate developer, and politician who served as the second governor of Alaska from 1966 to 1969 and 1990 to 1994, as well as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1969 to 1970. He worked as a construction worker and eventually became a construction company operator during Alaska's territorial days. Following World War II, Hickel became heavily involved with real estate development, building residential subdivisions, shopping centers and hotels. Hickel entered politics in the 1950s during Alaska's battle for statehood and remained politically active for the rest of his life.
Michael Anthony Stepovich was an American lawyer and politician who served as the last non-acting Governor of the Territory of Alaska. Stepovich served as Territorial Governor from 1957 to 1958, and Alaska was given U.S. statehood in 1959.
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Leland Chancy Croft was a workers' compensation attorney and Democratic Party politician from the U.S. state of Alaska. Elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1968, he served a single term from 1969 to 1971. He was then elected to the Alaska Senate, serving in that body from 1971 to 1979, including serving as the president of the Senate from 1975 to 1977 during the 9th Alaska State Legislature.
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The Jeanine Nicarico murder case was a complex and influential homicide investigation and prosecution in which two men, Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez, both Latinos, were wrongfully convicted of abduction, rape and murder in 1985 in DuPage County, Illinois. They were both sentenced to death. The case was scrutinized during appeals for being weak in evidence.
Although in its early years of statehood, Alaska was a Democratic state, since the early 1970s it has been characterized as Republican-leaning. Local political communities have often worked on issues related to land use development, fishing, tourism, and individual rights. Alaska Natives, while organized in and around their communities, have been active within the Native corporations. These have been given ownership over large tracts of land, which require stewardship. The state has an independence movement favoring a vote on secession from the United States, with the Alaskan Independence Party, but its membership has shrunk in recent decades.
Commonwealth North is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization based in Anchorage, Alaska. Founded in 1979, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in Alaska. Membership is open to everyone.
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