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Court of Alaska (2022) Elza Bouhassira In Torrence v. State, Department of Corrections, 2022 WL 2093196 (Alaska 2022) (unpublished), the supreme court held that a court may dismiss an appeal if an inmate has failed to exhaust the available administrative remedies.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 »
FAMILY LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Alex Bartlow In Tiffany B. v. State, Department of Health & Social Services, No. S-18111, 2022 WL 2066045 (Alaska June 8, 2022) (unpublished), the supreme court reversed the lower court’s order to terminate a mother’s parental rights, holding that the Office of Children’s Services (OCS) had not made Continue Reading »
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE Court of Appeals of Alaska (2022) Scott Anderson In Mosquito v. State, 504 P.3d 918 (Alaska Ct. App. 2022), the court of appeals held that a parole compliance law only applied to compliance on or after the law took effect. (Id. at 922–23). The legislature amended the initial version of a law which Continue Reading »
PROPERTY LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Sarah Couillard In Reeves v. Goodspeed Properties, LLC, 517 P.3d 31 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that improvements in an easement were not necessarily unreasonable simply because they were permanent. (Id. at 40). An LLC owned a parcel of land, adjacent to a parcel owned by an Continue Reading »
FAMILY LAW Supreme Court of Alaska (2022) Sarah Brooks In Wright v. Dropik, 514 P.3d 655 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that when there is a dispute as to whether two people were in a domestic partnership, the court must consider various factors to determine if the people lived together in a marriage-like relationship. Continue Reading »
