Voices

Marcelle McDannel: Legislature should act to prevent court records system from victimizing more Alaskans

Remember the disgraceful trial of our late, great Sen. Ted Stevens? In dismissing the public corruption case against Stevens, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said of the conduct of the prosecutors: "In nearly 25 years on the bench, I have never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct I have seen in this case." As a result of prosecutorial antics like hiding exculpatory evidence, Stevens ended his distinguished career branded a "defendant."

Our justice systems favors easy labels, like "victim" and "defendant," compressing the complexity of human interaction into a simple dichotomy of good versus evil. The label of "defendant" sears. He or she ceases to be a real person with a career, a family, hobbies and passions; he is a doer of wrong, a lawbreaker. "The defendant" is deserving of whatever humiliations we can heap upon him -- even before he has the opportunity to challenge the accusations at trial.

And when those accusations are proved wrong? Steven's case is a reminder that literally anyone -- even one of our state's most prominent, powerful citizens -- can find himself or herself unfairly labeled a "defendant." People are wrongly accused of crimes for all kinds of reasons: prosecutors withhold evidence, victims lie, false confessions are coerced from the vulnerable, witnesses identify the wrong person.

That fact seemed lost in the recent debate over SB 108, the bill that would have removed dismissed and acquitted criminal cases from CourtView, the Alaska Court System's public-shaming database. Prior to CourtView, anyone who wanted to look up a dismissed criminal case had to go to the courthouse and request the file by name. It required effort. Now, in less than a minute, anyone with Internet access can type in a name and pull up a criminal case dismissed for any of the reasons listed above.

Had Stevens been prosecuted by the state rather than the federal government, the charges against him would still be listed in CourtView. Stevens' legacy was spared this particular electronic label of "defendant" because the federal court system, unlike the state, does not have a public database like CourtView. Access to the federal database is restricted.

But most Alaska defendants are not spared this indignity. Consider the public abuse suffered by another public servant, John Giacalone, a longtime forensic scientist at the Alaska Crime Detection Laboratory. Giacalone was charged with first- and second-degree sexual assault because police and prosecutors believed the victim's story, despite the fact that it was plagued with contradictions. He was arrested and imprisoned. Multiple Anchorage media outlets covered his arraignment, detailing the victim's claims and publishing images of Giacalone in his orange prison garb. He was fired from both of his jobs. Even in the subsequent reports that the prosecutors announced belatedly discovering "substantial doubt as to what occurred on the night in question," the accompanying photos and videos still depicted Giacalone in his prison uniform, searing that image into the public's memory.

Victim advocates and our governor believe that the false charges against Giacalone should remain accessible to the public in the CourtView database -- the final coda to the chorus of public shaming this man has had to endure. They argue both the vicitms' and the public's right to know about this type of failure of justice trumps the right of any "defendant" to ever be free of the markings of his or her personal nightmare.

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But what these folks are failing to recognize is "victim," too, is merely a label, one that can be appropriated by just about anyone. Doesn't, in fact, Giacalone's story seem more appropriately told if we give him the label of "victim"?

Think of the damage done by the perpetrator, a 17-year-old who appeared to be under the influence of illegal narcotics. She made a false report of sexual assault, victimizing a longtime law enforcement veteran whose work with the crime lab has been instrumental in building solid forensic cases against some of Alaska's most dangerous criminals. The teenager destroyed the career, reputation and self-esteem of a man who dedicated his life to protecting the public's safety.

Standing up for the rights of a defendant takes no small measure of political courage, so maybe next session the Legislature will be more motivated to help Giacalone and others like him if we recognize that being chewed up by the machine of state on false charges creates its own class of victims.

Marcelle McDannel has been working in criminal law for almost two decades, both as a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney. She currently practices criminal defense statewide. Contact her at marcelle@alaskadispatch.com?.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Marcelle McDannel

Marcelle McDannel is a criminal defense lawyer, animal lover, and passionate defender of bad dogs.

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