As Hoosier trial courts prepare for the return of in-person proceedings with COVID-19 precautions, many unanswered questions remain about the best practices for safely conducting jury trials.
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A trial court’s remark endorsing “80% certainty” as a description of the reasonable doubt standard was improper but did not rise to the level of fundamental error for a woman convicted of murder in a fatal robbery, the Court of Appeals of Indiana ruled Monday.
The Indiana Supreme Court reversed an involuntary manslaughter conviction Wednesday and ordered a new trial after finding the trial court erred by not allowing defense counsel to directly voir dire prospective jurors.
Given that the purpose of voir dire is to determine whether prospective jurors can be fair and impartial, shouldn’t denying a defendant the opportunity to directly question them be recognized as a violation of their rights?
A man who stole a Jeep after threatening the vehicle’s owner with a hatchet did not have his right to a public trial violated due to restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday.
Following a “drastic” move by the Indiana Supreme Court suspending in-person jury trials from mid-December to March 1, courts across Indiana are attempting to resume the hallmark proceedings of the American judicial system. But in Marion County, finding enough jurors to hold those proceedings has proven difficult.
Post-pandemic, jury selection will change, the panel’s makeup may change and the individual potential juror’s responses to questions on the topic of COVID-19 might provide additional insight on the juror’s predilections.
A judge on Thursday granted prosecutors’ request to add a third-degree murder charge against a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death, a move that offers jurors an additional option for conviction and finally resolves an issue that might have delayed his trial for months.
A man convicted of intimidation after posting a threatening video meant for a police officer did not convince the Indiana Court of Appeals on Monday that his jury panel was unfair or that his conviction should be overturned.
Indiana Supreme Court justices on Thursday split in ordering a new trial in a wrongful death case involving an unwilling juror and a denied for-cause challenge.
The Indiana Supreme Court has issued orders amending rules of the court, some of which concern juror privacy and public access to juror questionnaires and discovery of certain insurance settlement information in mediations.
A woman convicted on a drunken driving charge will get a new trial after the Indiana Supreme Court unanimously threw out her conviction on Friday. The justices remanded the Marion County case because the trial court did not hold a hearing to determine whether the defendant could have challenged a selected juror who later admitted that a family member had been killed by a drunken driver.
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a man’s conviction and sentence Thursday for conspiracy to commit robbery, finding the denial of his motion to change venue and suppress evidence was not erroneous.
A man who was convicted of killing his second wife now is accused of murdering his first wife more than 40 years ago.
Finding the trial court did not err or abuse its discretion during the selection of jurors for the murder trial of William Clyde Gibson II, the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed his death penalty sentence.
A trial court properly denied a convicted rapist’s bid for a mistrial because a juror failed to disclose she was a Facebook friend with a relative of the victim, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.
A Marion County judge violated a defendant’s right to due process when it allowed the charge of resisting law enforcement to go to trial even though the defendant showed purposeful discrimination by the prosecution during voir dire, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
Based on the record before them, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals judges were unable to make an informed decision about the District Court’s decision to deny a defendant’s Batson challenge, so the judges sent the case back to the lower court.