Murdered person’s family members were not themselves victims of the murders, and accordingly evidence the family members had forgiven the defendant was not mitigation evidence and was properly excluded in the death penalty phase of the trial.
Supreme
Pierce v. State, No. 78S05-1407-CR-460, __ N.E.3d__ (Ind., May 12, 2015).
Because defendant grandfather’s molestations of his granddaughters were sufficiently “connected together” under the joinder statute, he had no right to have the molestation charges severed for trial on the basis they were joined only because they were “of the same or similar character.”
In re M.K., No. 49S02-1505-JC-260, __N.E.3d __ (Ind., May 12, 2015).
“Because the trial court’s remarks and conduct, in their cumulative effect, breached the court’s duty of impartiality and amounted to coercion of Father, we reverse the CHINS adjudication.”
YTC Dream Homes, Inc. v DirectBuy, Inc., No. 45S03-1505-PL-264, __N.E.3d __ (Ind., May 12, 2015).
The determination of whether an out-of-state attorney is granted temporary admission should be made without restriction by local rule and within the discretion granted by Indiana Admission and Discipline Rule 3(2) – whether good cause exists for the admission of the attorneys.
Bd. of Commissioners of the County of Jefferson v. Teton Corp., No. 72S04-1410-CT-642, __N.E.3d __ (Ind., May 13, 2015).
Adopts the “any insurance” approach to the AIA waiver—“that as long as a property owner’s damages are covered by any property insurance policy used to insure construction-related damages (i.e., the work), the waiver applies to all damages”