James Walsh v. State Alaska

James Walsh pled no contest to manslaughter, AS 11.41.120(a)(1), a class A felony. The trial court found Walsh to be a third felony offender and sentenced him to the fifteen-year presumptive term. AS 12.55.125(c)(3). Walsh appeals, arguing three points: (1) that the court erred in finding a prior larceny offense resulting in a 1947 conviction substantially similar to an offense under existing Alaska law, former AS 12.55.145(a)(2); (2) that the court erred in failing to find as a mitigating factor that his conduct was among the least serious included in the definition of the offense, AS 12.55.155(d)(9); and (3) that the trial court erred in failing to find that the imposition of the presumptive sentence would constitute manifest inJustice, requiring referral of the case to a three-Judge panel. AS 12.52.165; AS 12.55.175.