Across Indiana, 44 local jails are currently at capacity. But if half of all pretrial detainees were released, that number would fall to 11. A key lawmaker used that statistic Friday to demonstrate the possible benefits in Indiana’s efforts to release low-level, low-risk offenders as an alternative to cash bail.
The Indiana Supreme Court is now accepting applications for the state’s next public defender. Indiana’s current public defender, Stephen Owens, is retiring in December.
An Indianapolis attorney who hired a convicted killer to persuade a defendant accused of murder to ditch a public defender and retain him has been suspended for three years for incompetent client representation and lying to the disciplinary commission. A dissenting justice, however, would have disbarred the attorney.
A Marion woman charged in the strangulation death of her 10-year-old stepdaughter has waived her right to an attorney and says she will represent herself in court.
In the middle of what likely was chaos on a spring day in 1971, Norman Lefstein sat down and calmly wrote a petition for habeas corpus.
After more than eight years in office, Indiana Public Defender Stephen Owens will retire at the end of 2019.
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.
A man’s felony drug convictions were affirmed Thursday, but a trial court’s order requiring him to pay a $250 public defender fee and reimburse a northern Indiana county for his medical expenses were struck down by the Indiana Court of Appeals.
Prosecutors are seeking life in prison without parole for a southern Indiana man who allegedly smothered his girlfriend’s infant son with a pillow.
The Indianapolis man facing a possible death penalty for allegedly killing a Southport police officer is scheduled to appear in court Friday with a new legal team, including the former dean of Valparaiso University Law School.
A man who was convicted of domestic battery after being denied his request for a public defender has failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that his 11th-hour request for counsel should have been granted.
Advocates say alternatives to detention are benefiting kids, and Indiana is in line with statistics showing that across the country, youth incarceration and juvenile crime are declining.
Although the $34 billion budget dominated the session, legislators introduced and considered more than 600 bills each in both the Senate and the House. The ones they passed covered a variety of matters, including hate crimes, hemp, gambling, foster parents, electricity generation and, of course, electric scooters.
Since the Marion County judges hired their own environmental consultant to review the remediation plans for the property where the new justice center is slated to be built, the Marion County prosecutor and public defender offices have started raising their own concerns about the level of contamination and safety of their workers.
A judge in Jeffersonville has ruled a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and eating parts of her body can reject an insanity defense.
Study committees for the 2019 interim period have been approved by Indiana’s Legislative Council and will address dozens of issues for review in the coming months, including several legal-focused topics.
While acknowledging Indiana’s efforts to reform its criminal justice system has slowed the growth of the state’s prison population, a new report by the ACLU of Indiana asserts that additional reforms, including expanded access to treatment for mental health and substance abuse, could reduce the number of incarcerated by 50 percent and save Hoosier taxpayers more than $541 million by 2025.
A split Indiana Court of Appeals has granted a new trial to a man who was convicted after he was refused his right to represent himself in his criminal case. The majority found the defendant timely filed and was unjustly denied his pro se request.
Public defender reforms, including allowing public defenders in multiple counties to pool resources, were signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Eric Holcomb.
In the 2½ years since the Sixth Amendment Center released a report strongly condemning indigent criminal defense in Indiana, public defenders have pressed for reforms. Now, those efforts slowly are beginning to bear fruit as the Indiana General Assembly takes action on reform legislation.