Republican state Rep. Tammie Wilson has proposed legislation that would remove certain criminal cases from the state’s online court-records system.
Applicable cases would be ones that resulted in a person being acquitted of all charges or having those charges dismissed, or in which someone was acquitted on some charges and had the remaining charges dropped. Those records could not be published by the court system online if 60 days had elapsed from the date of acquittal or dismissal.
Wilson, R-North Pole, said the court-records site can be difficult to navigate, creating confusion over the final disposition of cases. She says that has had an effect on some people getting jobs or apartments. Hard copies of court records would remain available.
Lawmakers last year passed more sweeping legislation that would have made all such records confidential, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Sean Parnell as overly broad.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner last year lauded Parnell’s veto, calling it “an important development for Alaska government transparency.” The newspaper’s managing editor, Rod Boyce, said in a recent interview that he can understand the impetus for Wilson’s new bill. He often hears from people who don’t want their cases in the paper and say the charges are going to be dismissed.
In those cases, Boyce said he often gives them the benefit of the doubt and waits a couple days, depending on the magnitude of the case, to see if the case is dropped. There is no intention or desire to harm anyone, Boyce said.
But he said there are minuses to the approach in Wilson’s bill. If it passes, the online record will not be complete and people looking for information, say on a candidate for office, will have to ask court clerks to search their files for anything related to that person, he said.
Via adn.com
image credit APEonline
