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Alaska Statutes.

Title 13. Estates, Guardianships, Transfers, Trusts.

Chapter 6. General Provisions, Definitions, and Probate Jurisdiction of Court

Section 35. Evidence of Death or Status. .

AS 13.06.035. Evidence of Death or Status. .

In addition to the Alaska Rules of Evidence, the following rules relating to a determination of death and status apply:

(1) death occurs when an individual has sustained either irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem; a determination of death shall be made under accepted medical standards;

(2) a certified or authenticated copy of a death certificate purporting to be issued by an official or agency of the place where the death purportedly occurred is prima facie evidence of the fact, place, date, and time of death and the identity of the decedent;

(3) a certified or authenticated copy of a record or report of a governmental agency, domestic or foreign, that an individual is missing, detained, dead, or alive is prima facie evidence of the status and of the dates, circumstances, and places disclosed by the record or report;

(4) in the absence of prima facie evidence of death under (2) or (3) of this section, the fact of death may be established by clear and convincing evidence, including circumstantial evidence;

(5) an individual whose death is not established under (1) - (4) of this section and who is absent for a continuous period of five years, during which the individual has not been heard from, and whose absence is not satisfactorily explained after diligent search or inquiry, is presumed to be dead; the individual's death is presumed to have occurred at the end of the period unless there is sufficient evidence for determining that death occurred earlier;

(6) in the absence of evidence disputing the time of death stated on a document described in (2) or (3) of this section, a document described in (2) or (3) of this section that states a time of death 120 hours or more after the time of death of another individual, however the time of death of the other individual is determined, establishes by clear and convincing evidence that the individual survived the other individual by at least 120 hours.

Note to HTML Version:

This version of the Alaska Statutes is current through December, 2004. The Alaska Statutes were automatically converted to HTML from a plain text format. Every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy, but this can not be guaranteed. If it is critical that the precise terms of the Alaska Statutes be known, it is recommended that more formal sources be consulted. For statutes adopted after the effective date of these statutes, see, Alaska State Legislature If any errors are found, please e-mail Touch N' Go systems at E-mail. We hope you find this information useful.

Last modified 9/3/2005