CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2022) Sam MacDuffie In Lee v. State, 507 P.3d 483 (Alaska Ct. App. 2022), as revised on reh’g (Apr. 25, 2022), the court of appeals held that (1) a witness’s lack of memory does not make him unavailable for purposes of the Confrontation Clause, and (2) voluntary felony guilty pleas Continue Reading »
NATIVE LAW/FAMILY LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Robert Bulka In Mona J. v. State, Department of Health & Social Services, 511 P.3d 553 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that while a lack of parental cooperation with the Office of Children’s Services (OCS) does not justify making only passive efforts to provide remedial services Continue Reading »
TORT LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Rachel Reiss In Sulzbach v. City & Borough of Sitka, 517 P.3d 7 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that the City and a nonprofit volunteer were not liable for an accident that injured an event dancer. (Id. at 10). An independent nonprofit organization planned to host an Continue Reading »
FAMILY LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Kristiana Olson In Husby v. Monegan, 517 P.3d 20 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that a statute allowing modification of visitation orders applies to grandparents and that the parental preference rule does not apply when a grandparent has already been granted visitation. (Id. at 23). After a Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit (2022) Joe Perry In Wright v. State, 47 F.4th 954 (9th Cir. 2022), the Ninth Circuit held that an individual may not assert a conviction predicated on a previous conviction in another state as the basis for a habeas corpus petition for the original conviction. (Id. Continue Reading »
HEALTH LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Jake Sherman In In re Jonas H., 513 P.3d 1019 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that the superior court must explicitly make or incorporate findings relevant to every contested Myers factor to grant an order for the involuntary administration of psychotropic medication. (Id. at 1026). Jonas’s schizophrenia Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2022) Flora Lipsky In Sackett v. State, 518 P.3d 289 (Alaska Ct. App. 2022), the court of appeals held that the mere assignment of a public defense agency does not satisfy a defendant’s right to counsel. (Id. at 292). Following conviction and sentencing, criminal defendant Sackett filed a Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Elza Bouhassira In Torrence v. State, Department of Corrections, 2022 WL 2093196 (Alaska 2022) (unpublished), the supreme court held that a court may dismiss an appeal if an inmate has failed to exhaust the available administrative remedies. (Id. at *1). A riot broke out at Spring Creek Correctional Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2022) Connor Sakati In Zurlo v. State, 506 P.3d 777 (Alaska Ct. App. 2022), the Court of Appeals held that, when a prosecutor violates the duty of making a “reasonably complete and fair” presentation to a grand jury, the prosecutor then “subvert[s] the integrity” of that grand jury, so Continue Reading »
FAMILY LAW Supreme Court of Alaska Anighya H.D. Crocker In Layton v. O’Dea, 515 P.3d 92 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that the lower court erred when it (1) declined to consider whether a wife’s separate property transmuted to marital property through contract; and (2) found that no portion of a wife’s earnings on Continue Reading »