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.
A man charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Boone County sheriff’s deputy wants his trial moved. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Anthony Baumgardt, who is charged in the fatal shooting of deputy Jacob Pickett.
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.
Capital cases are entering what one judge calls uncharted territory, faced with determining whether an accused killer is entitled to court-appointed counsel of his choice or must be represented by a lawyer certified to defend death penalty cases.
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.
A former Marine who admitted to killing seven women in a plea deal with Indiana prosecutors has been sentenced to seven life sentences.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a lawyer for a criminal defendant cannot override his client’s wish to maintain his innocence at trial, even if the lawyer’s aim is to avoid a death sentence.
The Supreme Court of the United States agreed Monday to review the case of a Missouri death row inmate who says his rare medical condition could cause him to choke on his own blood during an execution.
A man charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a Boone County sheriff’s deputy heard a death penalty charge read to him Friday. Anthony Baumgardt of Lebanon is accused in the March 2 fatal shooting of Jacob Pickett.
A prosecutor says he will seek the death penalty against the man charged with fatally shooting a central Indiana sheriff’s deputy during a foot chase last month.
Accusations of sexual harassment and prosecutorial misconduct at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Capital Case Section have ensnared a death penalty case in the Southern District of Indiana against a federal inmate charged with killing his cellmate.
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.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is directing that flags be lowered to half-staff in four counties in honor of slain Boone County sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Pickett on the day of his funeral.
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.
The Indiana Department of Correction can alter its lethal injection protocols without going through a rule-making process because such protocols are internal procedures without the effect of law, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled in a decision affirming the dismissal of a death row inmate’s challenge to Indiana’s lethal injection cocktail.
Despite the “atrocious” nature of a murderer’s crimes, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed his death sentence in a habeas petition, finding prosecutorial misconduct and misleading jury instructions likely influenced the jury’s decision to sentence him to death.
The closing of 4-year-old Indiana Tech Law School in Fort Wayne, and the revelation that 138-year-old Valparaiso University Law School faced an uncertain future, made law school troubles the top legal news story of 2017, as determined by the staff of Indiana Lawyer. Changes on the federal and state bench also were among the year’s top stories.
Florida is scheduled to execute an inmate on Wednesday who was convicted of slashing one man’s throat and fatally shooting another six times in 1991.
Several Indiana Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of a death row inmate’s challenge of the Department of Correction’s untried lethal injection drug cocktail formulation.
Several Indiana Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Thursday of a death row inmate’s challenge of the Department of Correction’s untried lethal injection drug cocktail formulation.