Michael Pese (left) and Tupe Smith (right) with their three children at the gravesite of their mother Miliama Suli. Image credit: Right to Democracy
Alaska prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against 11 American Samoans from Whittier who had been prosecuted for checking “United States citizen” on voter registration forms, ending a nearly three-year legal ordeal for a family that faced up to 10 years in prison, but leaving open the possibility of future prosecution.
The dismissal came after the Alaska Court of Appeals threw out the charges against Tupe Smith, ruling that the state had failed to prove any “consciousness of wrongdoing” or that she had “purposely or deliberately” made a false statement. Acting Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills then dismissed the remaining charges against Smith’s husband Michael Pese and the other Whittier defendants, citing the court’s decision.
The case is rooted in a constitutional anomaly unique to American Samoa. American Samoa is the only United States territory where people born on United States soil are not automatically recognized as citizens—instead, they are classified as “United States nationals,” a status that grants them a United States passport and Social Security benefits but denies them the right to vote or hold public office outside of American Samoa. The defendants, like many in Whittier’s substantial American Samoan community, did not know they were ineligible to vote in Alaska, and neither, it turned out, did many Alaska state officials.
Smith was arrested in November 2023—handcuffed in front of her young children by Alaska State Troopers—a month after winning election to her local school board with 96% of the vote. She has said she checked the citizen box on voter registration forms after local election officials told her it was appropriate to do so, since there was no “national” option on the form. Prosecutors argued she had acted deliberately and pointed to warnings on forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022. The Court of Appeals rejected that argument, finding that a state trooper had misled her during interrogation and that prosecutors had misled the grand jury.
Nine months after Smith’s arrest, troopers returned to investigate Pese. Felony perjury charges followed 210 days later, on top of voter misconduct charges, with each defendant facing up to 5 to 10 years in prison. A yearlong investigation by Bolts in partnership with High Country News found that Alaska officials broadly had no clear understanding of the voting rights of American Samoan nationals before the Whittier case, and that Alaska administrators had in fact proactively registered ineligible voters and mailed them voter registration cards.
One of the 11 defendants, Miliama Suli, Pese’s mother and a civic and religious leader in Whittier, died of stage IV cancer in March 2026 while still under prosecution, never learning that the charges would be dropped.
“We could not have been happier when we heard the news. This was a major stress. It feels like a dark cloud hanging over our heads has been removed,” Pese said. “She would praise the Lord, and she would throw a barbecue to celebrate this victory. I know she’s really happy right now.”
“It feels good after everything we’ve been through. We are relieved to no longer have to worry about who will watch our kids if we are both put in jail,” Smith said.
Despite rejecting plea deals and fighting the charges, the prosecution left lasting damage. Nelson Vaimoa, another defendant, told Bolts the case had consumed him. “I’ve been punishing myself for this. Even when I had my daughter’s birthday, when she was 2 years old, it was bothering me. I was too distracted, and I forgot it was her birthday.” He said the ordeal had left him unwilling to volunteer in the community. “All of the savings I had were canceled, all the plans I had, all because of this case.”
The charges were dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning prosecutors retain the option to file new charges in the future. Alaska’s Department of Law said it “respectfully disagrees” with the Court of Appeals finding that the grand jury was misled, and Deputy Attorney General Angie Kemp said in a statement that the department stands “behind the work of the Department of Public Safety and the dedicated troopers who investigated these cases.”
Neil Weare, co-director of Right to Democracy, which led the legal defense alongside Stoel Rives, Drezner Zelinsky, and Cashion Gilmore & Lindemuth, welcomed the dismissal but said it fell short. “It seems that the nightmare Tupe and Michael have gone through is finally over,” Weare said. “But even after all this, the state only dismissed the charges ‘without prejudice,’ meaning they reserve the option to file new charges against Tupe, Michael, or others in the future. Tupe and Michael deserve to know there won’t be another knock at the door. An apology would be nice too.”
Charles Ala’ilima, an American Samoan attorney who also represented the defendants, called the prosecution unjustifiable from the start. “Sending two dozen Alaska State Troopers in a convoy to Whittier, Alaska, to go door to door to people’s homes and places of work searching for American Samoans was never justifiable,” he said. “These prosecutions were traumatizing, not just for those charged, but for the entire American Samoan community in Alaska. It opens all of our eyes to the real difficulties we face as American Samoans because of our current ambiguous and, in my opinion, unconstitutional, non-citizen second-class legal status.”
Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa, executive director of the Pacific Community of Alaska, said the community’s concerns extend well beyond Whittier. “There were questions across the whole state,” Toleafoa told Bolts. “Community members have reached out, concerned about the possibility of the same thing happening to them.” She added: “American Samoa is the United States and therefore birthright citizenship is a right for all American Samoans. We’re going to take the win, but the work continues.”
The case is part of a broader legal and constitutional debate over whether American Samoans are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, a question the Alaska Court of Appeals had been weighing throughout the prosecution and that remains unresolved. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Trump v. Barbara that neither the president nor Congress can unilaterally redefine the Citizenship Clause has added new weight to arguments that American Samoans’ non-citizen status is itself unconstitutional.
Right to Democracy has published a frequently asked questions with additional background on the Alaska prosecution of American Samoans.
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