Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
A bill that would establish new requirements for petitions for post-conviction relief appears to have stalled in the Indiana House this year, even after gaining support from the state’s attorney general.
Authored by Rep. Andrew Ireland, an Indianapolis Republican who previously proposed a constitutional amendment to allow for the impeachment of judges and prosecutors, House Bill 1314 would narrow the opportunities for incarcerated individuals to petition for post-conviction relief.
“When a case has gone through trial and appeals, the public and the victims deserve to know that the outcome means something,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a written statement last week. “Taxpayer dollars should be spent prosecuting new crimes and supporting victims — not reopening closed cases through endless meritless petitions. These reforms protect constitutional rights while restoring integrity and finality to the system.”
Still yet to be heard in the House Courts and Criminal Code committee, the bill’s future doesn’t look promising. The Indiana Lawyer reached out Monday to representatives for Ireland, Rokita and Committee Chair Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, none of whom immediately responded.
The final deadline for bills to be heard in committee was Monday, but given the winter storm, committee hearings were postponed until Tuesday. The Courts and Criminal Code committee is not scheduled to meet Tuesday, according to the General Assembly’s website mid-Monday, and it is not on the agenda for the House Judiciary committee.
Last week, Rokita’s office labeled the measure an effort to “close loopholes” used by petitioners to reopen their cases.
The legislation builds on Indiana’s Court Rule PC 1, which already establishes rules for post-conviction relief. Under PC 1, which went into effect last year, a petitioner may raise a claim for a proceeding “at any time.” Ireland’s proposal would lay boundaries on when and under what circumstances a person could bring their petition, potentially ruling out any previously made claims.
The bill states: “Any claim adjudicated on the merits in the proceeding that resulted in the conviction or sentence, or in any other proceeding the petitioner has taken to secure relief, shall be dismissed and may not be a basis for post-conviction relief.”
It would also speed up the filing process.
According to the bill, petitioners wanting to reopen non-capital cases must file their petition within one year from the date of their judgment. For those receiving the death penalty, it would be 180 days.
Ireland says the effort would restore post-conviction relief to its “original, limited purpose.”
“Every repetitive post-conviction filing reopens a case that was already finished,” Ireland said in a written statement last week. “Victims are forced back into a process they believed had ended, and courts are asked to revisit convictions that have already been tested and upheld. This legislation ensures that credible new claims can still be heard while bringing real finality to cases that have already been fully and fairly litigated.”
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.