When deciding whether a defendant properly waives the right to counsel in capital and LWOP cases, a trial court should frame its waiver inquiry with the state’s heightened reliability interests in mind. That inquiry should focus on whether, and to what extent, the defendant has prior experience with the legal system; the scope of the defendant’s knowledge of criminal law, legal procedures, rules of evidence, and sentencing; and whether and to what extent the defendant can articulate and present any possible defenses, including lesser-included offenses and mitigating evidence.
G. Slaughter
New Nello Operating Co., LLC v CompressAir, No. 20S-CC-578, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., April 22, 2021).
Continuity of ownership is necessary for the de-facto-merger and mere-continuation exceptions to apply to the buyer acquiring the seller’s assets, but not its liabilities.
Tate v. State, 19S-LW-444, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., Jan. 28, 2021).
Defendant was sentenced to life without parole. The record contained substantial evidence of both the torture and child-molest aggravators on which the jury could reasonably rely. However, because there was a third unchallenged aggravator, torture and child-molest aggravators notwithstanding, any error would not have altered the jury’s recommendation or the trial court’s decision to impose life without parole
Holcomb v. City of Bloomington, No. 19S-PL-304, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., Dec. 15, 2020).
City can challenge a statute in a declaratory judgment action against the Governor because the legislation challenged vested enforcement authority in the Governor.
Johnson v. State, 20S-CR-655, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind., Dec. 1, 2020).
Evidence of drug involvement, and whether the suspect and officer are in a confined space, are both part of the totality of the circumstances contributing to an officer’s reasonable belief that a subject is armed and dangerous as to permit a Terry frisk.