State denies pardon for Starkweather accomplice Caril Ann (Fugate) Clair

LINCOLN, Neb. (KMTV) — Caril Ann (Fugate) Clair's request for a pardon was denied Tuesday by the Nebraska Board of Pardons.

Clair, who was 14 at the time, says she was forced to go with Charles Starkweather who killed 11 throughout Lincoln and beyond between 1957 and 1958.

She was convicted in the 1950's as an accomplice and asked for a pardon.

Starkweather was executed in 1959.

The vote to deny the pardon was decided by Gov. Pete Ricketts, Sec. of State Bob Evnen and Attorney General Doug Peterson.

In a statement, Clair said that the fact that her posterity were made to believe she had a role in murders, was "too much for me to bear anymore."

Peterson says the role of the pardons board is limited and what Clair wanted was “beyond the scope of the pardons board.”

“We can’t come in and alleviate the burden that she feels for this case,” says Peterson.

Clair’s attorney John Stevens Barry was frustrated that testimony was allowed.

“Why didn’t they just tell me, don’t bother to come,” says Stevens Barry.

Some victims couldn’t have been happier, including Dave Ellis, whose mother’s cousin was killed during the crime spree in Bennet, when she was just 16.

“It keeps her memory alive. she was only 16 years old, she deserved to have a full life, she never got it,” says Ellis.

But others like, Liza Ward, were hoping for a pardon.

Her grandparents were killed in Lincoln by Starkweather, and she came from Massachusetts to see Clair pardoned.

“She has cried in my arms and I have cried in her arms, and she feels damn pain, you can bet it, this woman has been in pain all her life,” says Ward.

Mike Kemper, who is related to August Meyer, a farmer that was murdered by Starkweather outside of Bennet, says his family has forgiven Clair.

“If Caril has accepted Jesus as her savior and if she has asked for forgiveness, that she has it and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks,” says Kemper.

Stevens Berry said they’re not going to try again for a pardon, so Clair will likely go to the grave without one, with nobody really knowing her role in the crimes.

“Only she knows at this point because anyone else with firsthand knowledge is dead,” says Kemper.

Clair’s mother, step-father and two-year-old half sister were also killed by Starkweather. Clair has said she learned that they were killed after she was arrested.