Andrew Alexander Malone v. State of Alaska

In the Court of Appeals of the State of Alaska
Andrew Alexander Malone,
Appellant,
v.
State of Alaska,
Appellee.
Court of Appeals No. A-13658
Order
Date of Order: April 28, 2020
Trial Court Case No. 3KN-20-00288CR
Before: Allard, Chief Judge, and Wollenberg and Harbison, Judges.
Andrew Malone appeals from the district court’s April 2, 2020 order
holding him without bail until the completion of a competency evaluation. Malone
argues that the “no bail” order violates the Article I, Section 11 of the Alaska
Constitution. This section of our state constitution guarantees that, “in all criminal
prosecutions,” the accused “is entitled . . . to be released on bail, except for capital
offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great[.]”
The State acknowledges that Malone is entitled to pre-trial bail, but
suggests that, while the discussion at the April 2 hearing was unclear, the district court
did set bail at that hearing.
As we recognized in Hamburg v. State, Article I, Section 11 of the Alaska
Constitution — together with Article I, Section 12 of the constitution, which prohibits
excessive bail — “guarantees that the court must set reasonable conditions of bail release
for a defendant who has not yet been convicted.”1 We have listened to the bail hearing,
1 Hamburg v. State, 434 P.3d 1165, 1165 (Alaska App. 2018) (citing Martin v. State,
517 P.2d 1389, 1393-95 (Alaska 1974)).

Malone v. State - p. 2
File No. A-13658
April 28, 2020
and we agree with Malone that the court ordered Malone to be held without bail pending
a competency evaluation (with bail to revert to a third-party custodian following the
competency evaluation).
We therefore REVERSE the order denying bail pending the competency
evaluation, and we REMAND this case to the district court with directions to set bail for
Malone.
We do not retain jurisdiction.
Entered at the direction of the Court.
Clerk of the Appellate Courts
________________________________
Ryan Montgomery-Sythe,
Chief Deputy Clerk
cc: Court of Appeals Judge
Judge Fallon
Magistrate Judge Browning
Trial Court Clerk
Distribution:
Email:
Etengoff , Hannah, Public Defender
Iannaccone, F. Jon