The Alaska Court of Appeals held that juvenile detention decisions may consider offense seriousness, culpability, accountability, and deterrence alongside rehabilitation and public safety.
The Alaska Court of Appeals vacated Nick Frankson’s assault sentences on two grounds: the successor prosecutor breached the plea agreement by actively arguing against the parties’ agreed 720-day sentence on remand, and the superior court failed to personally address Frankson before proceeding to open sentencing after rejecting the sentencing agreement under Alaska Criminal Rule 11(e)(3). The court separately held that using Frankson’s nine prior assault convictions to find AS 12.55.155(c)(8) did not violate the Sixth Amendment under Erlinger v. United States, because determining that multiple dated assault convictions constitute ‘repeated instances of assaultive behavior’ requires examining only the bare conviction record — not the fact-laden inquiry that Erlinger held must go to a jury.
The Alaska Court of Appeals affirmed Lane’s DUI conviction under AS 28.35.030(a)(2), holding that the post-driving-drinking defense under AS 28.35.030(s) requires “some evidence” of actual post-driving consumption before a trial court must instruct the jury; an eight-minute gap between watercraft operation and a traffic stop, standing alone, did not meet that threshold. The court also called on the Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions Committee to revise the blood-alcohol-level DUI instruction to address its tension with the post-driving-drinking defense statute.