Stare Decisis Essay

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DATE: April 30, 2011 By: johneb57@e.coolworks.com QUESTION On March 25, 2011 the Supreme Court of Alaska issued Opinion No. 6547 consolidating the cases of John Carlin III and Jimmie Dale answering the following question: What is the effect of the death of a criminal defendant while an appeal is pending? In reaching its opinion, the Court was required to examine the doctrine of Stare Decisis prior to overruling itself in its decision of Hartwell v. State. In that case the Court held that the death of a criminal defendant, while a conviction was on appeal, would permanently abate all criminal proceedings and nullify the defendant’s conviction. This memorandum address’ Stare Decisis as applied in Alaska and the holding of the court in the instant case of Carlin v. State. Stare Decisis The phrase "Stare Decisis" is itself an abbreviation of the Latin phrase "Stare decisis et non quieta movere" which translates as "to stand by decisions and not to disturb settled matters". The doctrine Stare Decisis or precedent is a common law doctrine under which courts are bound by prior decisions in their consideration of new cases. Precedent is a judge-made rule designed to constrain judicial decision making by requiring that prior decisions with similar relevant facts be followed or, if they are not followed, that the reasons for departing from the prior rule be explained. Two types of Stare Decisis have been identified: horizontal stare decisis and vertical Stare Decisis. Horizontal Stare Decisis binds the issuing court to its own prior decisions. Vertical Stare Decisis requires that courts of lower rank follow decisions of higher courts. Vertical Stare Decisis has a stronger effect, in that lower courts generally cannot overrule decisions of higher courts, whereas a court may, given adequate reasons to do so, overrule itself. DICUSSION When a
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