Indiana’s top legal stories of 2024

From the sad drama of the Delphi double-murder trial to the return of death row executions to the fight over transgender rights, Indiana saw a lot of major legal news in 2024.

Here’s our list of Indiana’s Top 10 legal stories of the year as voted on by the Indiana Lawyer staff.

1. Lawyer shortage

The lawyer shortage in Indiana and across the country has been bubbling under as one of the top legal stories of the past several years, but it jumped to the top this year as the debate over how to address the shortage took a more serious tone.

More than half of Indiana’s 92 counties are considered legal deserts, defined by the American Bar Association as having less than one lawyer per 1,000 residents. That is creating serious judicial access issues, especially in rural areas, where the shortage is particularly acute.

Everyone from the Indiana Supreme Court to the Indiana State Bar Association to the state’s law schools is looking for solutions, creating a debate over what type of legal services licensed attorneys might be willing to cede to paralegals and other non-lawyers to help fill the gap.

The state’s high court already has approved a “regulatory sandbox” program that would test pilot programs that could deliver some legal services through someone other than an attorney. The court also is calling for state funding for grants to help lawyers set up shop in small communities.

In February, the state’s high court also decided for the first time that graduates of non-American Bar Association accredited schools would be able to take the Indiana bar exam. That move also is seen as an effort to ease the lawyer shortage.

2. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s reelection and ongoing feud with the state disciplinary commission

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita easily won re-election in November despite being reprimanded by the Indiana Supreme Court in 2023 over politically charged comments he made about a doctor who performed a medical abortion on a 10-year-old rape victim.

He also was dogged throughout the campaign by reports of additional conduct complaints being filed against him.

The day after his election victory Rokita characterized the series of complaints as an attack on his free speech rights by political opponents and called for changes in the state’s disciplinary rules for attorneys regarding political speech.

He said he wants safeguards to protect himself and other lawyers from what he calls frivolous and politically motivated disciplinary complaints. And he suggested that a current member of the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission showed bias by endorsing his Democratic opponent in the runup to the Nov. 5 election.

3. Delphi double-murder trial

The November trial of Richard Allen for the 2017 murders of two Delphi teens drew widespread media attention in Indiana across the nation and exposed a tense relationship between media who wanted to put cameras in the courtroom and the judge who denied them.

Allen, 52, was convicted of the murders of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, who went missing during a winter hike in February 2017 and were found dead the next day with their throats slashed.

Allen also lived in Delphi and when he was arrested in October 2022, more than five years after the killings. He was employed as a pharmacy technician at a pharmacy only blocks from the county courthouse where he later stood trial.

Last month, he was sentenced by Special Judge Frances Gull to the maximum 130 years in prison.

4. Immigration

It’s a hot-button issue that is expected to get even hotter as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office.

Mass deportations, more U.S. troops at the southern border and the possible deployment of the National Guard in non-border states such as Indiana could all be part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Indiana officials already have begun to set the stage for significant change.

On Nov. 9, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced the opening of immigration-related investigations into several nonprofits, government agencies and businesses, alleging that an influx of migrants has created housing and possible labor trafficking issues in Evansville, Seymour and Logansport.

Rokita also joined Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales in asking in October for federal assistance in scrutinizing the citizenship status of more than 585,000 registered Hoosier voters — more than one in 10 residents on the voter rolls.

5. Transgender issues

State and federal courts were repeatedly called upon in 2024 to wade into issues concerning transgender rights.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in November that an Indiana law banning gender-affirming care for minors could stay in effect despite objections by the parents of some transgendered youths.

The panel of judges ruled 2-1 that the law’s restrictions are within the purview of the Indiana General Assembly and do not infringe on the constitutional rights of transgender children, their parents or medical providers.

Since 2021, more than 20 states have enacted laws restricting or banning such treatments, even though they have been available in the United States for over a decade and are endorsed by major medical associations.

Most of those laws have been challenged by lawsuits. A Tennessee case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court may ultimately settle the issue.

On a related issue, the nation’s high court in March declined to hear the appeal of a Hoosier couple who say the state wrongly removed their transgender daughter from their care because of their religious beliefs.

6. New state and federal judges

A promotion and retirements led to new judges being appointed to the federal and state benches in the past year.

In the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana, Judge Joshua Kolar was elevated to the 7th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Chicago. Magistrate Judge Abizer Zanzi, who most recently served in the U.S. Attorneys’ Office in Hammond, was selected in May to fill Kolar’s vacancy.

In January, two judges were confirmed to the Northern District Court of Indiana, Gretchen Lund and Cristal C. Brisco.

In the Southern District, Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson took senior status but no one has been named to succeed her yet.

The Indiana Court of Appeals saw two retirements this year, with Judge Patricia Riley stepping down and Judge Terry Crone taking senior status. Former Porter Circuit Judge Mary DeBoer was selected by Gov. Eric Holcomb to fill Riley’s spot. Lake Superior Court Judge Stephen Scheele has been named to succeed Crone.

7. Indiana Supreme Court retention vote

The three Indiana Supreme Court justices on the November ballot easily won a vote for retention despite a rare social media campaign to oust them because of their ruling in support of the Legislature’s near-total abortion ban.

Each of the three justices — Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justices Mark Massa and Derek Molter — were supported for retention by at least 69% of the voters.

No supreme court justice has lost a retention vote since the process was instituted in 1970. The support they received in the November election was in line with what justices have typically received through the years.

While some voters pushed for the justices’ ouster, the Indiana State Bar Association expressed its support for the judges. Also, a political action committee was formed by former justices and prominent attorneys to push for the justices’ retention.

8. The return of death row executions

Indiana executed its first death row inmate since 2009 when convicted murderer Joseph Corcoran was killed by lethal injection on Dec. 18 for a quadruple murder in Fort Wayne.

Corcoran, who had been on death row since 1999, was 22 when he killed his brother, James Corcoran, as well as Robert Scott Turner, Douglas Stillwell and Timothy Bricker, 30, on July 26, 1997.

The yearslong pause in executions has been attributed to the unavailability of lethal injection drugs. But Gov. Eric Holcomb announced in June that the Indiana Department of Correction had acquired a drug used by multiple states in lethal injections — the sedative pentobarbital — after years of effort.

Seven other men are currently on Indiana’s death row. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita already is seeking an execution date for Benjamin Ritchie, a man convicted of killing a Beech Grove police officer in September 2000.

9. Death of Robert H. McKinney

Robert H. McKinney, the namesake and benefactor of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law, died on Sept. 29 at his home in Walloon Lake, Michigan, surrounded by his family. He was 98.

In 2011, McKinney, a name partner in the law firm Bose McKinney & Evans, made a $24 million donation to Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis, which is now named Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

His influence in Indiana law and involvement in private and public endeavors has been expansive. In addition to his legal career, he also assumed leadership roles in his family’s businesses, including First Federal Savings & Loan Association and Jefferson National Life Insurance Company.

Long active in Democratic Party politics, McKinney ran unsuccessfully for the Indiana House in 1956. He also chaired the state’s leading fundraising dinner for John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign and served as Indiana chairman for the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie, Walter F. Mondale, and Jimmy Carter. He was also outside legal counsel to Indiana Gov. Roger D. Branigin and chair of Indiana Governor Evan Bayh’s Government Reorganization Committee.

10. Conviction of former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel

Former Clark County Sheriff and longtime Republican operative Jamey Noel is expected to spend upwards of a decade in prison after a judge accepted his guilty pleas to more than a dozen felony charges for misusing money from the fire and EMS departments which he oversaw.

The cases involved the mismanagement of millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars. Authorities said he used the money to buy planes, a collection of classic cars, vacations, clothing and other personal luxury purchases. Investigators said public funds were also used to pay for college tuition and child support.•