On August 28, Gov. Sean Parnell vetoed a bill that would have limited public access to criminal court records.
KSRM spoke with Anchorage media lawyer John McKay about Senate Bill 108 earlier this year.
McKay: “It doesn’t really matter which side of the story you are, there’s a lot of cases thrown out because of prosecutorial misconduct, police misconduct, or some sort of government abuse, why would we want the evidence of that to be removed from the records so that people couldn’t find it when they are looking back in time to see how our government is operated. So I think its a much more complicated question, and it may be that there are some things that should be expunged from the public record that could be handled through an expungment statute that provides for a way to take into account for cases that really do warrant that.”
Gov. Parnell issued a statement in regards to the veto saying “The provisions in Senate Bill 108 attempted to solve a complex issue that requires striking the right balance between open and transparent criminal court proceedings, the rights of crime victims, and the rights of persons who have been accused, but never convicted, of a crime. Unfortunately, the legislation summarily swept all such cases under the cloak of confidentiality in an unnecessarily broad manner, without respect to likely adverse impacts on the public.”
In his decision, Gov. Parnell highlighted a newly amended Alaska Court rule adopted.
As amended the rule states that those arrested under the following circumstances will no longer have that record visible in the electronically searchable CourtView database:
· Persons arrested but not charged;
· Persons charged but counts are dismissed for lack of probable cause or an identity error;
· Minors wrongly charged in adult court;
· Persons who have applications for protective orders filed against them that are dismissed at or before the initial hearing on an ex parte petition for lack of probable cause or insufficient evidence.
