Osborne

BACKGROUND

Following a March 1994 jury trial in Alaska Superior Court, Osborne was convicted of kidnapping, assault, and sexual assault, and was sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment. The charges arose from a March 1993 incident in which the victim, a prostitute named K.G., after agreeing to perform fel- latio on two clients, was driven to a secluded area of Anchor- 12664 OSBORNE v. DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE age, raped at gunpoint, beaten with an axe handle, and shot and left for dead.

K.G. later identified, from photo lineups, Osborne and Dex- ter Jackson as her assailants. At their joint trial, abundant physical evidence linked Jackson to the crime scene. Specifi- cally, K.G. identified Jackson’s car as the one in which the assault took place, and tire tracks at the scene matched those made by Jackson’s car. K.G. also identified a pocketknife found in Jackson’s car as hers, and ballistics tied a spent shell casing found at the crime scene to a pistol found in Jackson’s car. By contrast, aside from K.G.’s (and Jackson’s) identifica- tion of Osborne as the second assailant, the State tied Osborne to the assault based primarily on its analysis of biological evi- dence…