Before 2014, it was a cut-and-dry issue: fixed-sentence plea agreements meant an offender would serve out the terms of their plea, with no chance to change it. But after 2014 legislation and a 2016 Indiana Court of Appeals decision, the Indiana Supreme Court must now decide whether such agreements may be modified.
When a court accepts a fixed-sentence plea agreement, prosecutors and defenders alike say the long-standing practice has been for courts to uphold the exact terms of that sentence, absent an agreement between the parties. A recent Indiana Court of Appeals ruling, however, has seemingly put an end to that practice, leading to both a legislative and judicial review of the sentencing issue.
A defense attorney for the former sheriff of Indiana’s second most-populous county says federal prosecutors are seeking an “outrageous” prison sentence for his conviction on bribery and wire fraud charges.
A divided panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals has ordered a trial court to reconsider a sentence modification for an offender who agreed to a fixed-sentence plea agreement, a ruling that goes against proposed legislation currently pending before an Indiana Senate committee. However, in his first writing as an appellate senior judge, former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Robert Rucker dissented from the majority ruling.
The Marion Superior Court must reduce a man’s sentence for criminal contempt of court to six months in order to comply with his Sixth Amendment rights and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled.
A federal judge is giving former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle another chance to seek relief from his 15-year prison sentence after striking down the most recent of his objections to his sentence on Wednesday.
Likely voters overwhelmingly support prosecutors who will work to end mass incarceration, alternatives to prison and reducing racial bias, according to polling results released Tuesday.
In a 3-2 decision Tuesday, the Indiana Supreme Court reduced a life without parole sentence for an offender convicted of murder at 17, finding LWOP sentences should be reserved for the most “heinous” juvenile offenders. The dissenting justices, however, found the nature of the crime in question warranted a life sentence.
A former Indiana State University student who pleaded guilty to secretly filming female student-athletes in a campus locker room and sharing those videos online has been sentenced to five years in jail.
With Lake County seemingly awash in political corruption, a local newspaper is trying to uproot the culture of kickbacks and payouts by putting the spotlight on those who speak in favor of the latest elected official to be convicted. The Lake County Bar Association formally opposes the action.
The Indiana Supreme Court will decide whether trial courts have authority to waive respondents’ rights to be present at their mental health commitment hearings after granting transfer to a case in which a man was not present for his commitment hearing.
A western Indiana woman has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the neglect death of her malnourished 8-month-old daughter, who weighed just 11 pounds when she died.
A central Indiana judge has given a 50-year prison sentence to a former deputy town marshal in the death of his wife who was shot with his police weapon.
The only American citizen to be convicted in a U.S. jury trial of successfully joining the Islamic State overseas has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
An Indiana man accused in an attack on a Michigan State Police trooper has been sentenced to 15 to 50 years in prison.
A man who murdered a friend and shot and wounded another lost his appeal that argued the jurist who rejected his guilty plea then presided over his murder trial wrongly denied a motion for a new judge.
Ex-Indianapolis attorney and convicted fraudster William Conour may have yet another day in court, nearly four years after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing $6 million from three dozen clients and more than 18 months after he was resentenced to the same term.
A former central Indiana sheriff’s deputy convicted of civil rights violations for battering two handcuffed suspects will be sentenced in November for the third time after rulings by a federal appeals court.
An Evansville woman has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting her boyfriend.
A man convicted of killing three foreign exchange students in a violent car crash while driving drunk won't have his 38 ½-year sentence after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined he failed to prove his sentence was inappropriate.