Gov. Sean Parnell is considering a bill passed by the Alaska Legislature that would limit public access to court records in cases where they were acquitted or charges were dropped.
Proponents of the bill say that it strengthens the idea of presumed innocence however opponents like Anchorage media lawyer John McKay said it will most likely have unintended consequences.
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.”
McKay also said the Alaska Office of Victims’ Rights is against the bill, saying that many cases that get thrown out are more than they appear.