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SAKEAGAK v. STATE1/9/1998
ought on the evening of her death. Sakeagak said that, while he was pushing his wife down onto the bed, he had pulled on her arm while the arm was wrapped around her neck — suggesting that Judy had strangled by accident. At the ensuing trial, the medical examiner testified that he thought this explanation of the death was highly dubious — that it was essentially impossible for "a healthy person to put their own arm around their neck in a way that could cause them to become injured."
A Barrow jury convicted Sakeagak of first-degree murder. Superior Court Judge Michael I. Jeffery sentenced Sakeagak to 99 years' imprisonment.
The Evidentiary Rulings
At trial, during the government's direct examination of Sgt. Venable, the prosecutor played a tape recording of Venable's interview with Sakeagak (the one that took place after Venable received the medical examiner's report). Before the prosecutor played the tape for the jury, the following exchange occurred:
PROSECUTOR: Investigator Venable, I'm going to play this whole tape for the jury, but before we listen to it, I want to give the jury a "heads up" on how the interview was conducted. Could you explain how the interview was conducted?
VENABLE: Yes, sir. I brought Mr. Sakeagak . . . to the office. The first thing that I did was tell him that Judy was killed and it wasn't — it wasn't natural causes. The second thing I informed him of is the fact that — that he was responsible for the death.
PROSECUTOR: Okay. And basically, throughout that interview, you confronted him with those kinds of statements.
VENABLE: Yes, sir.
PROSECUTOR: Okay. And why did you [conduct] this interview as such a confrontational interview?
VENABLE: Because I felt that he was responsible for her death.
Defense counsel objected to Venable's last answer, as well as to the playing of the parts of the taped interview where Venable told Sakeagak (falsely) that the medical examiner had concluded that Sakeagak was responsible for his wife's death.
Judge Jeffery concluded that Venable's in-court answer was admissible to show why the officer had "adopted that particular investigative style" during the interview. As for Venable's false assertions to Sakeagak during the taped interview that the medical examiner had concluded that Sakeagak was responsible for his wife's death, Judge Jeffery allowed Sakeagak's attorney to conduct a voir dire examination of Venable (in the presence of the jury) before the tape was played. During this voir dire, Venable conceded that these statements to Sakeagak were simply part of his interview strategy,
and that the medical examiner had not identified Sakeagak (or any other individual) as being responsible for Judy Sakeagak's death.
On appeal, Sakeagak contends that Judge Jeffery's ruling essentially allowed Venable to inform the jury of his personal opinion that Sakeagak was guilty. Relying on Flynn v. State, 847 P.2d 1073 (Alaska App. 1993), Sakeagak argues that this testimony deprived him of a fair trial. We disagree.
There was no chance that the jury would misapprehend the import of the statements Venable made during the taped interview concerning the autopsy results (his assertions to Sakeagak that the medical examiner had identified Sakeagak as the person responsible for his wife's death). When the defense attorney conducted the voir dire examination of Venable before the tape was played, Venable readily conceded that these assertions were false — that the medical examiner had not identified any individual as being responsible for Judy Sakeagak's death. Venable explained that he told th
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