Articles

Hill asks SCOTUS to reinstate death penalty for murderer Baer

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill is asking the nation’s highest court to reinstate the death penalty against a man convicted of killing a Madison County woman and her 4-year-old daughter, arguing the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals failed to properly defer to state court rulings when it overturned his death sentence earlier this year.

Read More

Indiana joins Nevada fight against drugmaker delay of execution

Fifteen states including Indiana are siding with Nevada as it fights drug companies battling the use of their products in an inmate’s execution. Republican attorneys general from the 15 states filed documents Monday with the Nevada Supreme Court arguing drug company Alvogen’s claims are a part of a “guerrilla war against the death penalty.”

Read More

Mom of Fort Wayne girl killed in ’88 hopes defendant gets death

The mother of an 8-year-old Fort Wayne girl who was raped and killed in 1988 wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the man accused of the crimes. Prosecutors on Tuesday declined to discuss whether they’ll seek the death penalty for 59-year-old John Miller in the killing of April Tinsley. But the girl’s mother, Janet Tinsley, told the Journal Gazette that she wants to be present if Miller is put to death.

Read More

Supreme Court enjoys relatively high public confidence

The next Supreme Court justice will join the bench at a time when the public has more confidence in the high court than in Congress or the presidency. A Gallup survey in June found 37 percent of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the court, while another 42 percent have “some” confidence. Only 18 percent have little or no confidence in the court.

Read More

Supreme Court rejects appeal from gay inmate in South Dakota

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a gay death row inmate in South Dakota who says jurors were biased against him because of his sexual orientation. Charles Rhines tried to persuade the court to take an interest in his case after the justices last year ruled that evidence of racial bias in the jury room allows a judge to consider setting aside a verdict. 

Read More

Gary man facing death in slayings of wife, 2 kids loses PCR bid

A Gary man sentenced to death for killing his wife and two teenage stepchildren has lost his latest attempt to overturn his conviction – a post-conviction relief petition. Lake Superior Judge Samuel Cappas and Magistrate Judge Natalie Bokota determined in a ruling issued Friday that Kevin Isom of Gary failed to establish he had ineffective counsel at his murder trial or during the appeals process.

Read More
doc-053018-450bp.jpg

State secret: DOC presses lethal injection confidentiality

A law slipped into the 2017 budget bill during the General Assembly’s final hours declared that information about drugs that the state would use to execute someone was confidential. The last-minute law was written into the bill even though a judge had ruled months earlier that the very same information was a matter of public record and had ordered the Department of Correction to provide it.

Read More

Indiana justices to rule on lawyer in death penalty case

The Indiana Supreme Court will consider an appeal that challenges a ruling to remove a Fort Wayne defense attorney from a death penalty case. Allen Superior Judge Fran Gull removed defense attorney Nikos Nakos from Marcus Dansby’s death penalty case, citing his lack of training.

Read More

Hill asks full 7th Circuit to reinstate death penalty for Baer

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill has asked the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the death penalty for an Indiana man convicted of the “heinous” murders of a Madison County mother and her 4-year-old daughter after a 7th Circuit panel overturned the man’s death penalty sentence last month.

Read More