Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee is calling for President Joe Biden to commute the sentence of the U.S. Navy officer whose medical emergency while driving caused two deaths in Japan.
Lt. Ridge Alkonis, 35, was released Thursday from a Japanese prison into U.S. custody under an international prisoner transfer program. But Lee’s blood is boiling because Alkonis then was transferred to an American federal prison, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
“Please join me in asking @POTUS to #FreeRidgeAlkonis—today!” Lee wrote on one of his accounts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“This story will make your blood boil,” Lee told the Deseret News in a text. “This U.S. Navy lieutenant has been so severely mistreated by the U.S. Navy — and he’s done absolutely nothing wrong. He just blacked out while driving because of an unforeseeable medical emergency. We finally got him out of prison in Japan yesterday and back to the United States, and then they immediately threw him in prison. I’m sharing this story in every way I know how. This family feels so betrayed by the United States government — because it has been.”
A Japanese judge ruled that Alkonis fell asleep at the wheel of a minivan and crashed into pedestrians and parked cars in a restaurant parking lot near Mount Fuji on May 29, 2021, killing an 85-year-old Japanese woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law. The judge sentenced Alkonis to 36 months in prison.
Alkonis began serving the sentence in July 2022.
A U.S. Navy doctor testified at the trial that Alkonis did not fall asleep but blacked out due to acute mountain sickness during the return drive from a hike above 7,000 feet on Mount Fuji. His wife and children, who were in the van with him during the crash, said Alkonis was not sleepy and appeared to black out. They said that once he passed out, he was unresponsive to their screams and one daughter’s kicks. He remained unconscious during the crash itself.
Alkonis and his family also voluntarily paid the victims a record $1.65 million in restitution. The apology, or gomenasai, is customary in Japan and regularly leads to suspended sentences.
In one of a barrage of tweets, Lee said that U.S. officials should make sure Alkonis is home for Christmas.
“While I am grateful to everyone who aided our efforts to secure his transfer, it is now incumbent on the Biden Administration to ensure Lt. Alkonis immediately receives an impartial review by the U.S. judiciary,” the senator tweeted. “The DOJ must act swiftly to correct this injustice, ensuring Lt. Alkonis can celebrate the holidays with his family, free from the shadow of an unjust conviction.”
The prisoner exchange program is intended to better rehabilitate prisoners by returning them to their home country where they understand the language. The U.S. Parole Commission, an independent part of the Justice Department, will review the case and determine how long Alkonis will remain in federal prison, The New York Times reported.
“Alkonis has been told it may take months for the Parole Commission to act on his case,” Lee tweeted. “That’s absurd and unacceptable. The Parole Commission could and should meet to address and release Alkonis immediately.”
The Alkonis case stirred intense feelings on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Biden administration officials told The New York Times that the transfer did not change Alkonis’ conviction in Japan or that the administration was challenging the court’s conclusions.
Instead, the parole commission will determine whether the sentence was commensurate with what a U.S. court would have found.
Alkonis is married and has three young children. The family has been granted visitation rights during normal prison visiting hours, family spokesman Andrew Eubanks said.
“We are encouraged by Ridge’s transfer back to the United States but cannot celebrate until Ridge has been reunited with his family,” the family said in a statement. “When the Biden administration is presented with the complete set of facts and circumstances surrounding the case, we’re confident they will promptly recognize the absurdity of Ridge’s conviction.”
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and national security adviser Jake Sullivan worked with Japanese officials for more than a year to secure Alkonis’ release. Biden spoke with Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House in January. In February, Biden spoke with Brittany Alkonis, the lieutenant’s wife, after the president’s State of the Union address.
The release of Alkonis strictly followed the prisoner transfer treaty, the Times reported. Alkonis agreed to the terms two weeks ago, when U.S. officials traveled to Japan to inform him of the agreement.
The Biden administration told the Times that by law, neither the White House nor Justice Department have a role in the parole commission’s decision.
Lee said the prisoner transfer treaty gives Biden the power to commute the sentence.
“Lt. Ridge Alkonis is an American hero who deserves better than this,” Lee tweeted.
“Sadly, he returned to the U.S. today not in triumph, but in handcuffs — not collapsing into the loving arms of family, but thrown into a federal prison in Los Angeles,” Lee added.
He continued:
@POTUS could pardon this man immediately — or at least commute his sentence — to allow him at last to return to his wife and young children.
And he should.
I call upon @POTUS and his staff to make this right.
This isn’t how we treat American heroes.