State, Dept. of Public Safety v. Doe I

I. INTRODUCTION

Today the court holds that only statutory language can be consulted when determining whether a foreign conviction was committed under a statute similar to an Alaska statute listed in ASORA. In my opinion, a foreign statute should be regarded as similar to a narrower Alaska statute for ASORA purposes when it covers the same conduct as the Alaska statute, as well as other conduct, if in a particular case it is clear that the foreign conviction was based on conduct that would satisfy the elements of the Alaska statute. Since sometimes court records can show this, I would not…