Erick v. State

The majority holds that court system negligence,1 i.e., a failure to exercise due care in summoning for trial in a remote village a jury panel sufficiently numerous to ensure that a jury of twelve persons would be selected (despite a predictably large number of challenges for cause and the standard large number of available peremptory challenges), invalidates a subsequent trial where the defendant waives a jury of twelve and proceeds to trial with a jury of seven persons chosen from the area in which the crime occurred. The majority relies upon Alvarado v. State, 486 P.2d 891, 905 (Alaska…