A man sentenced to more than 150 years in prison for murder and robbery convictions could not convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that a contested dying declaration undermined his convictions and required reversal.
A federal prisoner scheduled to be executed Friday at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute has failed to secure habeas relief from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Promising to put liberty into action, former Indiana Congressman and Secretary of State Todd Rokita returned to elected office Monday, taking the oath as Indiana’s 44th attorney general.
“Broken before she was born.” That’s how lawyers describe Lisa Marie Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row and the next person scheduled for execution. Her lawyers and advocates who cite her horrific history of childhood abuse and trauma are calling on President Donald Trump to commute her sentence to life without parole or to grant her a reprieve.
The federal executions scheduled for next week cannot proceed unless the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute takes additional measures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spread, a federal judge has ruled.
Six men required to register as sex offenders after moving to Indiana can have their names removed from the sex offender registry, the 7th Circuit has held, finding that the state’s registration law discriminates between offenders who have consistently lived in Indiana and those who more recently moved into the state. A dissenting judge, however, disagreed with the majority’s holding that the registration law burdens the plaintiffs’ right to travel.
Legislation meant to shield Indiana businesses and individuals from COVID-related liability was met with a groundswell of support on Wednesday, though some raised concerns that the language of the bill could have unintended legal consequences.
A woman twice denied disability benefits despite evidence of serious mental disabilities causing limitations on her ability to work will get a third chance to make her case for benefits.
Given the economic toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on Indiana’s budget, the Indiana Supreme Court is not requesting additional funding in the next biennial budget that will be drafted during the 2021 Legislative session. Instead, the court is asking the General Assembly to keep funding steady and has reverted funds to the state through pandemic-related savings.
International adoptions were already on the decline, lawyers say, and there’s concern that COVID could further reduce them. However, there are ways to unite families even as a pandemic keeps borders closed.
Even as digital recording is grows, charged sentiment surrounds the use of artificial intelligence in court reporting, industry experts say. According to some, there’s a middle ground to be found: embracing technology to increase efficiency while also relying on humans for nuance.
Two inmates are renewing their bid to postpone upcoming executions at the Terre Haute federal prison, claiming this time to have an evidentiary link between recent executions and an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among inmates.
Almost 100 individuals accused of violent crime in Indianapolis have been arrested and charged through a federal program designed to decrease violence across major U.S. cities, the Department of Justice has announced.
The nearly four-year legal battle over allegations that the southern Indiana city of Charlestown used unconstitutional code enforcement tactics to force a group of neighborhood residents out of their homes has been resolved with a settlement agreement requiring the city to act “reasonably” in its enforcement of local codes.
Indiana’s commercial court docket is expanding for the first time, with four new venues opening in 2021. Hamilton, Madison, St. Joseph and Vigo counties will join Allen, Elkhart, Floyd, Lake, Marion and Vanderburgh counties in offering the specialized business dockets.
A Marion County mother has failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that her parental rights over her 13-year-old daughter should be reinstated.
A man convicted on multiple charges related to a stolen vehicle and a police chase did not convince the Indiana Court of Appeals to overturn his unlawful possession of a firearm conviction, though a majority of judges did toss his habitual offender enhancement. A dissenting judge, however, would have let the enhancement stand.
A mother has regained legal custody of her child for now after the Indiana Supreme Court reversed a trial court order Friday, finding that a lower court judge improperly “coupled” a finding of contempt against the mother with an analysis into the child’s best interests.
Speaking with reporters via Zoom on Thursday, Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush acknowledged that despite efforts to keep courts operating remotely as much as possible, judges will face the difficult task in 2021 of working through COVID-created backlogs and getting their dockets back on schedule.
The Indiana Southern District Court has suspended all in-person jury trials until next year, a move announced just days after the Indiana Supreme Court implemented the same restrictions in state court due to the pandemic. Federal in-person jury trials in the Northern District also have been continued until at least late January.