AlaskaJury Nullification
In Alaska the judge decides what the law is and the jury decides what happened. Every juror takes an oath before the trial starts, and the judge explains that oath before anyone is asked to swear it. The state constitution gives the accused an impartial jury of twelve. A court rule requires every verdict to be unanimous.
Overview
Juries in Alaska
Alaska's court rules give questions of law to the judge and require every verdict to be unanimous. The jury's job is to decide what happened.
Alaska puts a juror's duty into an oath. Every juror swears it before the first witness is called, and the judge explains what it says before anyone is asked to take it. What the oath commits a juror to, and what it leaves alone, is in the Alaska chapter of the guide.
The Alaska constitution gives the accused an impartial jury of twelve. It lets the legislature provide a smaller jury, of no fewer than six, in some courts. What else that section secures is in the chapter.
The Alaska chapter
What's in the Guide for Alaska?
Jury selection
Alaska's court rules give fourteen grounds for sending a possible juror home before the trial. The chapter explains the two that deal with opinions a person already holds.
What the judge tells you
What an Alaska judge reads to the jury before the oath, what the oath itself says, and what the judge says about keeping your own view of the facts.
How the verdict works
What a unanimous verdict asks of each person in an Alaska jury room, and what the standard instructions say to a juror who does not agree with the rest.
Protections and risks
Whether an Alaska juror can be punished for a verdict, what state law says about people who try to sway a juror from outside the trial, and the separate Alaska law about a juror who agrees to a verdict before deliberations begin.
The law in plain English
The Alaska laws behind the chapter in everyday words. They include the court rule on jurors and their oath, the rule on verdicts, the jury tampering law, the law on misconduct by a juror, and the jury section of the state constitution.
Official state resources
Links to Alaska's official sources, each one checked. They cover the state statutes, the court system's criminal rules and pattern jury instructions, the constitution, and the court system's page for people called to serve.
Your summons
Called for Jury Duty in Alaska?
An Alaska jury summons asks you to come to court and help decide what happened in a case. If you are picked you will take the juror's oath, the judge will tell you what the law is, and you and the other jurors will decide the facts.
The Alaska Court System has a Jury Service page for people who have been called. It covers reporting, who can serve, and how to ask to be excused.
That page covers getting to court. The grounds for removing a person before trial, what the oath and the instructions ask of you, and what Alaska law says about jurors and the people around them are covered in the Alaska chapter of the guide.
Your Alaska summons
- Sent byThe court system
- Names come fromPeople who applied for the Permanent Fund Dividend
- It asks you toCome to court and help decide what happened in a case
- Jury size12; in courts not of record the legislature may set 6 to 12