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The Indiana Court of Appeals determined a Marion County judge wrongly excluded evidence corroborating an Indianapolis man’s self-defense claim and has ordered a new trial on a voluntary-manslaughter charge.In Terrance Hood v. State of Indiana, No. 49A02-0703-CR-242, the appellate court reversed and remanded to Marion Superior Judge Tanya Walton Pratt’s courtroom a case involving an August 2005 shooting outside a liquor store.As Hood exited the store, a vehicle nearly crashed into him and he got into an argument with the driver. That…

Carmel has another appellate win on the issue of annexation after an Indiana Court of Appeals ruling today.The state’s second-highest appellate court decided that the city adequately proved it could afford to annex part of a nearby community into its municipal borders, and that a Hamilton County judge erred in auditing a financial plan and ruling in favor of the remonstrators.The unanimous decision in City of Carmel v. Certain Home Place Annexation Territory Landowners, No. 29A04-0510-CV-578, comes not even a month after…

The Marion County Juvenile Detention Facility has hit what some consider its lowest population in at least 12 years, evidence that a risk assessment tool implemented about two months ago is working. A new reception center may lower those numbers even more. Earlier this week, the Marion Superior Court announced the population was at 98 – below the facility cap of 144 that was often filled prior to the recent changes. The number had increased to about 118 on Wednesday but…

  The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider arguments Friday on whether sitting and prospective judges should be barred from responding to questionnaires or giving personal views about legal or political issues, and whether state judicial canons can be allowed to restrict that speech.Circuit judges will hear arguments at 9:30 a.m. Central Time in Indiana Right to Life v. Shepard, et al., No. 4:04-CV-0071, which U.S. District Judge Allen Sharp in Hammond ruled on Nov. 14. Judge Sharp granted a…

An Indiana Court of Appeals decision today grabs you with the first lines, setting the groundwork for an intriguing read whether you’re an attorney or not.”In this case of first impression, we balance the private rights of students and citizens against our schools’ need to identify individuals on school property in this post-Columbine world,” Judge Cale Bradford wrote. “More specifically, we are asked to determine whether a school police officer may conduct a pat-down search of a student on school grounds…

If a defendant doesn’t appear at a trial he or she knew about, a trial court can consider that a knowing and voluntary waiver of that person’s right to be present and to have counsel appear there, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.Justices ruled 3-2 in Carlos M. Jackson v. State of Indiana, No. 15S01-0609-CR-333, which involved a man found guilty of possession of cocaine with intent to deliver and possession of an unlicensed handgun. Jackson was ordered to attend…

An Evansville shopping center owner is entitled to $2.3 million in damages for loss of access to a public thoroughfare resulting from a state highway project, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled today.The court’s unanimous decision came in State of Indiana v. Kimco of Evansville, Inc., No. 82A01-0607-CV-301, affirming a Vanderburgh Circuit jury award that stems from the road project in 2000 impacting the Plaza East Shopping Center along State Road 66 and Green River Road.In June 2000, the state took 0.154…