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Homicide in Alaska law is divided into first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide.

History
Under Alaska's first law code, the Carter Code, the punishment for first-degree murder was a death sentence, but the jury could choose to give the defendant a life sentence instead. First-degree murder included not only deliberately killing another, but also all killings conducted in the course of certain felonies. Also, killing by poisoning or blocking a railroad were automatically considered first-degree murders. Second-degree murder included all malicious killings not included within the remit of first-degree murder, and carried a minimum penalty of fifteen years' imprisonment. Manslaughter was all killing not justifiable or excusable, and not punishable as first- or second-degree murder. It was punished by a term lasting between 1 and 20 years. Once again, manslaughter was expressly defined to include procuring suicide, abortion not necessary to preserve the mother's life, and malpractice by a drunk physician resulting in death.

In 1957, when the death penalty was abolished in Alaska, the punishment for first-degree murder was changed to "life or for any term of years". But by 1975, a new minimum of 20 years had been imposed.

In 1978, Alaska's penal code was reformed. Murder and attempting murder were "unclassified felonies", which meant that it was one of the most serious crimes under the code. The punishment for first-degree murder was kept at a minimum of 20 years, and that for second-degree murder to a minimum of five. However the court could impose a 99-year sentence in all cases, and a 99-year sentence was mandatory in certain cases of first-degree murder, such as when the offender had previously been convicted of first- or second-degree murder, or when the person killed was a police officer or had been tortured by the offender. The offenses of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide were also created, as Class A and Class B felonies. For first felony offenders, manslaughter resulted in a 5-year presumptive sentence, while that for criminally negligent homicide was not defined.

Provocation and imperfect self-defense reduced a charge of murder to manslaughter, but imperfect self-defense was abolished in 1982.

The mandatory minimum for first-degree murder was raised to 30 years in 2016, while it was raised to 15 years in 2016 for second-degree murder. ==