Maryclaire Akers

Professional career

• Appointed by Governor Jim Justice on March 6, 2021, to complete the term of the late Judge Charles King, Jr., and was elected in May 2022 to finish the term
• Direct official appointment notice dated March 3, 2021: Governor Jim Justice appointed Maryclaire Akers of Charleston to the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Kanawha County, replacing the late Charles E. King Jr
• The West Virginia Judiciary lists her as the presiding judge for the Eighth Judicial Circuit (Kanawha County)
• Prior roles: Kanawha prosecutor office chief of staff and senior assistant prosecutor, Special Assistant United States Attorney, West Virginia Ethics Commission general counsel, assistant attorney general

Education

Additional information

• On September 29, 2026, Judge Akers approved a $4.4 million settlement between the State of West Virginia and five children who were abused by their former adoptive parents, Jeanne Whitefeather and Donald Lantz.
• Running again in the 2024 judicial election.
• She graduated WVU School of Journalism in 1995 and WVU College of Law in 1999
• Attorney Dante DiTrapano
• representing the children, said the settlement would help them “reclaim parts of their childhood”.
• The children, aged 6–16 at the time, were forced into labor and abused while living with the parents in Sissonville.
• Whitefeather and Lantz received over 350 combined years in prison for their roles in the abuse.
• George Washington High School alumna.
• Before becoming a judge, Akers spent most of the past 20 years as a Kanawha County Assistant Prosecutor focusing on serious crimes, and held the role of General Counsel for the West Virginia Ethics Commission and Assistant Attorney General.
• She has tried numerous felony cases, including murder, robbery, sexual assault, and other violent crimes, and has worked on high‐profile cases such as the “Kanawha County Sniper” and the Park Place Bar shutdown.
• The lawsuit also alleged that the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services failed to protect the children despite multiple reports.