Dodds v. State

OPINION

MANNHEIMER, Judge.

Ian Dodds appeals his conviction for first-degree robbery. 1 He contends that the trial judge committed error by failing to have the jury decide whether the State had proved the corpus delicti of robbery. But Dodds did not ask for a corpus delicti instruction, so he must establish plain error to prevail on appeal. As we explain here, the facts of Dodds’s case raise no real issue of coi'pus delicti. Moreover, Alaska law provides no clear answer to the question of whether corpus delicti is to be decided by the trial judge or the jury. For these reasons, we conclude that…