Indiana Court decisions – Feb. 15-28, 2018
Read Indiana appellate court decisions from the latest reporting period.
Indiana Supreme Court
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E-filing begins in Fishers City Court
The Fishers City Court has become the most recent to implement electronic filing as the Indiana Supreme Court nears the end of its push to roll out e-filing across the state.
Attorney online access extended to mental health, adoption records
Attorneys registered with Indiana’s Odyssey case management system will now be able to access mental health and adoption documents for which they are the attorney of record after the Indiana Supreme Court approved a new task force recommendation.
Fort Wayne attorney suspended for unethical client recruitment
A Fort Wayne attorney previously disciplined for deceptive marketing practices has been suspended from the practice of law for nine months after he engaged in another unethical scheme to garner more clients.
Hill asks full 7th Circuit to reinstate death penalty for Baer
Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has asked the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the death penalty for an Indiana man convicted of the “heinous” murders of a Madison County mother and her 4-year-old daughter after a 7th Circuit panel overturned the man’s death penalty sentence last month.
Supreme Court releases report on Commercial Courts amid challenge
Coinciding with the halfway point for the three-year Commercial Courts Pilot Project that faces a pending constitutional challenge, the Indiana Supreme Court has released a report on the six participating courts. More than half the cases were filed in Marion County, and three courts have had 10 or fewer cases filed.
Supreme Court will decide how gang enhancements are treated in sentencing
The Indiana Supreme Court will consider the treatment of criminal gang enhancements in sentencing decisions during an upcoming oral argument after granting transfer to a robbery case that led to vacated convictions and resentencing orders.
Week after argument, justices uphold denial of continuance, sentence
A Floyd County man convicted of attempted residential entry and resisting law enforcement lost his appeal of his sentence and the denial of his motion for a continuance. The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the trial court’s ruling only one week after hearing oral arguments in the case.
Supreme Court remands habitual offender case considering recent decisions
The Indiana Supreme Court has remanded an appeal of a Dearborn County habitual offender enhancement considering two opinions addressing habitual offender findings, a move that comes as the Indiana General Assembly seems poised to pass a bill that would more narrowly define how out-of-state felonies should be treated when considering sentencing enhancements.
Indiana Court decisions – Feb. 1-14, 2018
Read Indiana appellate court decisions from the latest reporting period.
Court celebrates Indiana community in marking Black History Month
Lyles Station, a community along the Patoka River in southwest Indiana, is long past its heyday of 800 residents working their farms, practicing their trades and educating their children. But as the only historic rural black settlement still standing in Indiana, its unique history is being celebrated.
Texas attorney reinstated to Indiana bar
A Texas-based attorney who was reciprocally suspended in Indiana has been reinstated to the practice of law in the Hoosier state.
Supreme Court upholds conviction against woman who violated pastor’s protective order
A Greene County woman convicted of violating a protective order obtained by her former pastor has lost her appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court, which found sufficient evidence to support her third invasion of privacy conviction on Friday.
Supreme Court upholds standalone voluntary manslaughter charge, conviction
In an unusual case involving a voluntary manslaughter charge being brought without a related murder charge, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that voluntary manslaughter can be brought as a standalone charge, and a Marion County man’s conviction on that charge was proper.
Supreme Court considers whether to revise ‘illegal’ sentence
The central issue the Indiana Court of Appeals identified in its decision to reverse a man’s attempted residential entry conviction didn’t come up much during the case’s oral arguments before the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday.
Justices hear police officer sexual assault cases
Two cases from opposite ends of the state jointly came before the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday for guidance on the same question: if a police officer sexually assaults a citizen while on duty, should municipalities be held liable for the officer’s actions as the employer?
Supreme Court upholds LWOP for execution-style murder
A southern Indiana man convicted of murder in the shooting death of a man at a power plant will spend the rest of his life in prison after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld his sentence of life without parole.
Supreme Court upholds DOC’s lethal injection protocols
The Indiana Department of Correction can alter its lethal injection protocols without going through a rule-making process because such protocols are internal procedures without the effect of law, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in a decision affirming the dismissal of a death row inmate’s challenge to Indiana’s lethal injection cocktail.
Senate panel advances bill to narrowly define out-of-state felonies
A bill that would more narrowly define how out-of-state felonies are treated in Indiana sentencing matters passed its first hurdle in the Indiana Senate.
Sex offender statute to come before Supreme Court
A sex offender convicted in 2010 must make his case to the Indiana Supreme Court as to why a 2015 law should not bar him from attending his son’s school events after the high court granted the state’s petition to transfer the case last week.