DataAlaska  

In Alaska, felony murder is defined as subsections in both the first degree murder (Alaska Stat. Ann. § 11.41.100) and second degree murder statutes. (Alaska Stat. Ann. § 11.41.110).

Prosecutors can charge and convict any person of first and second degree murder without having to prove that they intended to cause another person’s death. Prosecutors must only prove that a person or an accomplice committed another specified felony and that a death occurred “in the course of or in furtherance of that crime or in immediate flight from that crime.” Prosecutors can prove murder even when the death was caused by a third non-party (i.e. neither the person nor their accomplice). There is no possibility in Alaska for a person charged with felony murder to raise an affirmative defense–i.e. that he or she acted under duress, that they weren’t armed and had no reason to believe another participant was armed or intended to engage in conduct likely to result in death.

A conviction for felony murder carries a sentence of a minimum of 10 (second degree) or 20 years (first degree) in imprison and maximum of 99 years of incarceration.

In total, there are 18 persons incarcerated for felony murder in Alaska (comprising 4.57% of all murder convictions).

Young people in Alaska are disproportionately impacted by felony murder.

• 35

  Median age at offense for all crimes

• 21

  Median age at offense for felony murder

*These factors track the process--i.e. the effort and obstacles--for obtaining data from individual states under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and appeals process. These factors do not measure the quality of the data; only the process of attempting to obtain the data.

"Our conviction data is not always complete [sic] precise."

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We created our dataset by examining Alaska Department of Corrections (ADOC) data for people whose charge was listed as “Murder 2-Felony Murder.” At this stage, we did not request data pertaining to charges under AS.11.41.100(a)(4) & (5). These data were obtained through a public records request through the Alaska Open Records Law. This dataset represents all individuals in the ADOC system as of July 2023.