State Department of Law reports falling felony filings, rising appeals and improved prosecutor retention

John Skidmore, deputy attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Alaska Department of Law, briefed the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 19 on caseload trends, staffing and appellate pressures facing the division.

Skidmore opened by summarizing the Criminal Division’s mission, saying it “is to seek justice, to promote public safety, and public respect for the government through prompt, effective, and compassionate prosecution of cases.” He emphasized that prosecution work includes trials, appeals, petitions to revoke and post‑conviction relief applications.

Skidmore told the committee that the division’s caseload picture is improving in some ways: felony filings dropped from around 15,000 in earlier years to about 6,000 in fiscal 2024, and the division is now disposing more felony cases than it files, which has reduced the active caseload pressure. He said trial activity fell sharply during the pandemic — from roughly 150 trials in FY19–FY20 to as few as 39 — but trial numbers rebounded to about 149 trials in FY24 and the conviction rate at trial returned to approximately 82 percent.

Skidmore identified several operational challenges. Discovery obligations have grown substantially as law enforcement agencies deploy body‑worn cameras and other sources that generate large volumes of video and digital evidence; Skidmore described the resulting storage and review burdens. He said an inexperienced workforce and past high vacancy rates had contributed to earlier backlogs, but both vacancy and experience metrics have improved since 2023.

On appeals and post‑conviction work, Skidmore said notices of appeal and opening briefs have risen sharply in 2023–24. He warned that appellate work has a long lag — roughly three to five years from notice of appeal to final disposition — and that the recent surge in appeals could create pressure on the appellate unit. The division reported 376 pending post‑conviction relief (PCR) matters, with some PCR cases pending for many years.

Skidmore gave the committee a three‑year look at vacancies and said prosecutor vacancy rates decreased from 15 percent in fiscal 2023 to about 11 percent in fiscal 2025; the raw number of prosecutor positions also increased in that period. Paralegal and law‑office assistant vacancies likewise fell. He credited increases in pay and an expanded training program — including a departmental training academy, mentoring, trial advocacy programs and dedicated training staff — with helping retention and raising the number of prosecutors with 8–15 years and 15+ years of experience.

Committee members asked for more data. Skidmore agreed to provide additional statistics including longer historical conviction rates at trial and a more directly comparable (“apples‑to‑apples”) presentation of experience and staffing numbers. He also noted the department can consult national organizations on discovery trends, and said it will continue tracking appellate filings closely.

Several senators discussed broader criminal justice concerns raised by the data. Members asked whether decreases in reported offenses — including a noted drop in reported sexual assaults in crime statistics — reflect fewer victimizations or fewer reports; Skidmore said a victimization survey scheduled for 2026 (authorized by the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault) should help researchers and policymakers compare reporting and victimization trends.

Skidmore also drew a link between the availability of prosecutors for trial and case resolutions, telling the committee that when prosecutors were available for trial during recent assistance to Anchorage, the presence of a ready prosecutor often led to case resolutions rather than trials.

Ending: Skidmore said the department will provide follow‑up data requested by the committee and continue monitoring appellate and PCR caseload pressures; no committee action was taken during the presentation.