A decades-old murder case was considered by the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday during oral arguments where parties debated whether the former teen defendant was prejudiced by his counsel’s failure to present mitigating evidence about his mental illness at the time of the offense.
Indiana is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that ordered the release of a man convicted in the 2000 killing of an Indiana University student.
Immigration lawyers at the Indiana State Bar Association Annual Meeting discussed how Angelo Bobadilla’s misdemeanor convictions led him to immigration court and to a landmark Indiana Supreme Court ineffective assistance of counsel ruling.
The man convicted in the May 2000 murder of Indiana University student Jill Behrman has been ordered released from prison after a federal judge granted him habeas relief. In reaching that decision, the Southern Indiana District Court determined the Indiana Court of Appeals improperly evaluated the defendant’s allegations of prejudice.
Indiana Supreme Court justices granted transfer to five cases last week, declining review of nearly 40 others.
An Indiana woman who successfully argued she had ineffective legal counsel at her murder trial for the 2001 slaying of her boyfriend in Lafayette during a sex game has been released.
A man convicted of murder may proceed in his second pursuit of post-conviction relief now that the Indiana Supreme Court has concluded his petition addressed only the grounds arising from his second appeal and was therefore not considered a second or successive petition.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a man’s denied petition for relief from what he alleged as conspiracy to wrongfully convict and confine him, among other things, after finding a post-conviction court erred in the procedure it used to dispose of his petition.
A mentally disabled man serving a 55-year prison sentence for an Elkhart murder 17 years ago that he maintains he did not commit is reviving his efforts for post-conviction relief, presenting new evidence in a petition he claims exonerates him.
A man who as a 16-year-old received a 181-year sentence for murder in entitled to a new sentencing hearing. The Indiana Court of Appeals concluded the Lake County teen was denied effective trial counsel during his sentencing hearing.
A woman with a history of mental illness who was convicted in 2002 of murdering her boyfriend after testifying the she heard a voice telling her she was the Messiah has won her federal habeas case asserting ineffective assistance of counsel. She will be freed unless the state opts within 120 days to retry her.
Earlier this month, a 3-2 majority of the Indiana Supreme Court granted post-conviction relief to noncitizen Angelo Bobadilla, finding deficient counsel performance and prejudice. But dissenting justices raised concerns about the ruling inappropriately expanding the PCR analysis.
Despite a trial attorney’s failure to include a pretrial transcript in the record on a defendant’s direct appeal, the defendant is not entitled to post-conviction relief because the Indiana Court of Appeals would not have found prejudice in the attorney’s performance, the court ruled Friday in addressing the case for the second time.
The Indiana Supreme Court chose to grant transfer to three cases during the past week, including commitments to the Indiana Department of Corrections. The court also granted transfer and decided a case granting relief to a deported “Dreamer.”
A Mexican immigrant who was living in the United States under the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals policy and who was deported after pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges has won relief from the Indiana Supreme Court, which overturned the denial of post-conviction relief in a divided opinion Tuesday.
A man who pleaded guilty at age 15 lost his appeal on a motion to set aside his murder and attempted murder convictions when the Indiana Court of Appeals found he should have filed his argument as a claim for post conviction relief.
An immigrant woman who waited 12 years to seek relief from a forgery conviction has lost the appeal of the denial of her post-conviction relief petition, with the Indiana Court of Appeals finding the woman did not provide a credible explanation for the delay.
Although the Indiana Court of Appeals agreed the relationship had broken between a Fort Wayne criminal defense attorney and his client, it did not find that the 130-year sentence handed down would have been significantly less if defense counsel had offered mitigating circumstances.
The Indiana Supreme Court has upheld the denial of post-conviction relief for a convicted child murderer and arsonist sentenced to death, finding that while the man’s counsel did make mistakes, those mistakes did not rise to the Strickland level of deficient performance. However, Chief Justice Loretta Rush dissented and would have allowed the case to proceed to a new penalty phase.
The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed Tuesday the denial of a man’s successive petition for post-conviction relief, finding the man’s trial attorney’s strategy was not constitutionally ineffective.