CONSTITUTIONAL LAW & CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Sasha Kahn In Perozzo v. State, 493 P.3d 233 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court of appeals held that a police officer’s request for a vehicle passenger’s identification before subsequently conducting a warrants check is not part of a “routine” traffic stop, meaning it cannot be done “without a reasonable Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Sloane Bessey In Mollica v. State, 500 P.3d 1002 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court held that when a defendant faces termination from a therapeutic court program, he or she is entitled to due process protections including written notice concerning the grounds for discharge, disclosure of the relevant evidence, and the chance to Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Emma Giusto In Lee v. State, 503 P.3d 811 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court of appeals held that neither an Alaska statute requiring the conservation of biological material in homicide and sexual assault cases for later DNA testing nor due process are violated when non-DNA biological evidence is destroyed, but that the Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Sasha Kahn In Compton v. State, 485 P.3d 56 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court of appeals held that a trial judge’s ruling that parties could not play recordings of conversations for the jury unless the witness who made the statement denied having made that statement was in violation Rule 613(b) of the Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Melissa Gustafson In Phornsavanh v. State, 481 P.3d 1145 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court of appeals held that when trial courts rule on motions for a new trial based on the weight of the evidence, they must independently weigh the evidence and use their discretion to make their own credibility determination about Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Sloane Bessey In Gosuk v. State, 484 P.3d 130 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court of appeals held that a police-citizen contact can become an investigative stop due to repeated accusatory questioning and that when the State claims a consent exception to the warrant requirement it has the burden of proving that consent Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Melissa Gustafson In Phornsavanh v. State, 481 P.3d 1145 (Alaska Ct. App. 2021), the court of appeals held that when trial courts rule on motions for a new trial based on the weight of the evidence, they must independently weigh the evidence and use their discretion to make their own credibility determination about Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Daisy Gray Hayes v. State In Hayes v. State, 474 P.3d 1179 (Alaska Ct. App. 2020), the court of appeals held that the hearsay exception for a child crime victim’s recorded statement in Alaska Evidence Rule 801(d)(3) covers statements where the victim is under sixteen years old at the time of the Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Kate Goldberg Chilcote v. State In Chilcote v. State, 471 P.3d 599 (Alaska Ct. App. 2020), the court of appeals held that neither Virginia’s two-tiered adjudicated system, nor the failure to advise a defendant of their right to a jury trial, violates a defendant’s fundamental rights in terms negating a “prior conviction” Continue Reading »
In Anderson v. State,[1] the supreme court held a police officer validly seized the defendant’s clothing without a warrant because the officer saw the clothing in open view and had probable cause to believe the clothing was evidence of a crime. In the course of breaking into a home, Anderson injured the home’s occupants, and Continue Reading »
