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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAn order requiring a confidential informant to sit for a face-to-face interview with defense counsel will be reviewed by the Indiana Supreme Court during oral arguments Thursday. Justices will also hear arguments on petition to transfer in a case where a defendant was erroneously released from prison then reincarcerated.
The high court granted transfer in State of Indiana v. Justin Jones, 21S-CR-50, in February and will hear arguments at 9 a.m. Thursday.
Justin Jones was charged in 2018 after a confidential informant provided information about a home invasion that led law enforcement to Jones. His counsel made three attempts to question the informant in a manner that protected the CI’s identity, but when those attempts failed, the Marion Superior Court ordered the state to produce the informant for a face-to-face interview. However, defense counsel could not ask “any questions that may disclose the [CI’s] identity, identifiers, residence, etc.”
The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that order in November, finding the lower court “fashioned a solution that balanced Jones’ right to information that would allow him to prepare his defense with the State’s desire to keep the CI’s identity hidden … .”
Following arguments in Jones, the justices will hear the case of Jordan Allen Temme v. State of Indiana, 20A-CR-275, on petition to transfer.
In that case, Jordan Temme was erroneously released from prison more than two years early. When the state discovered the error, the Vanderburgh Superior Court ordered him back to the Department of Correction.
The Court of Appeals affirmed, and Temme is now seeking transfer.
Arguments in Temme will begin at 10 a.m. Thursday. Both cases will be heard virtually and will be livestreamed on the court’s website.
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