EARLY RELEASE: Parole Board’s Loss is Alaska’s Gain after Chair Resigns to Pursue Politics

Palmer’s Edie Grunwald says she’s running for Lieutenant Governor out of a “duty for Alaska.” As someone who has criticized Grunwald in the past, I couldn’t agree with her decision more.

That’s because Grunwald’s weekend announcement that she’s running alongside Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce comes with her resignation as Chair of the Alaska Parole Board, a position she was grossly unqualified to hold. Since her appointment in 2019, Grunwald has let her “tough on crime” mentality cloud her judgment and stand in the way of Alaskans seeking discretionary parole.

Grunwald’s decision to again run for Lieutenant Governor (she also lost a bid for the office in 2018) may be unrelated to her disastrous term on the parole board, but it’s worth noting that her resignation comes just a week after a Superior Court judge handed down a strongly worded ruling against the board and its recent handling of a 63-year-old man’s parole hearing.

In that case, Judge Michael MacDonald said Grunwald and the board failed to follow his orders and implied Grunwald demonstrated a limited understanding of his previous orders and the process itself. In one passage of his 31-page ruling in favor of convicted murderer Michael Stephens, MacDonald took Grunwald to task for what he called “little comprehension of, or regard for this court’s decision.”

“It appears that this court’s decision received only a cursory review, if it was read at all, and that it was not taken as a direct Superior Court order,” MacDonald wrote in ordering a new hearing for Stephens.

The Stephens case isn’t the only evidence that Grunwald — whose 16-year-old son, David, was murdered in 2016 — only served on the board as a way to deny those seeking discretionary parole. There’s also the fact that during her time as chair, discretionary parole fell to just 16%, the lowest level in at least a decade.

The Department of Corrections hasn’t commented on Grunwald’s resignation. According to the DOC website, longtime board member Sarah Possenti of Fairbanks is now serving as interim chair. An email seeking comment was not immediately returned. (Note: this story will be updated if I receive more information.)

I have no idea whether Grunwald would make a good Lieutenant Governor. I really don’t care. The fact is Grunwald was never an appropriate choice to lead the Alaska Parole Board and I’m glad she’s stepping down. Hopefully her resignation will lead to a more rational and humane parole board that puts a quest for justice ahead of a desire to dish out punishment.

This column is the opinion of Matt Tunseth, an Alaska freelance writer who has previously worked as a journalist for the (Kenai) Peninsula Clarion, Alaska Dispatch News, Anchorage Daily News, Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman and Chugiak-Eagle River Star. Write to him at matthew.tunseth@gmail.com.