Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Alaska
Court Jurisdiction
Does a constitutional structural error ''AKA Structural Defect'' deprive a sentencing court jurisdiction?, If so name case law.
Asked on 4/16/05, 2:33 pm
1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman
Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman
Re: Court Jurisdiction
Structural error is a complicated concept and I won't try to explain it here in any detail. Basically, it means that the trial itself was carried out in a way that was so fundamentally unfair to the defendant that he is entitled to a retrial no matter what the result; there is no such thing as "harmless error" in such a case.
Structural error has no effect on a court's jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is about *whether* a court can hear a given case, but structural error concerns *how* the court conducts the trial. They are entirely separate concepts.
Answered on 4/16/05, 5:54 pm