The Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee heard SB 174, Sen. R. Michael Young’s bill to make the application of the 2014 sentence modification statutory changes retroactive to crimes committed before July 1, 2014. Sen. Young noted that there was disagreement in the criminal justice system about the issue and that several appeals about it are pending. The disagreement was manifested by the testimony of Larry Landis of the Public Defenders Council, who supported the bill and said he had thought last year’s legislation made it applicable to pre-July 1, 2014 crimes, and the testimony of David Powell of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council in opposition to the bill that the Council interpreted last year’s legislation as making the 2014 modification change inapplicable to crimes committed before July 1, 2014. Mr. Powell also urged the Committee to undo the 2014 elimination of the prosecutor’s consent requirement, pointing out that the amended law increases the numbers of modification hearings, at which victims are obliged to appear, sometimes by subpoenas issued by the petitioner.
The Floyd County Chief Deputy Prosecutor also testified in opposition to the bill, observing that if a judge schedules a hearing on a modification petition he is obliged to notify the victim and to have the victim appear at the hearing to oppose the modification, all of which is extremely stressful for victims. A crime victim who accompanied the prosecutor testified as to the stress she felt at having to encounter at a modification hearing the person who had violated her. After Committee discussion, Sen. Young said he was amenable to having a provision inserted in the bill on second reading to avoid subpoenas to victims from petitioners. An amendment proposed by Sen. Steele to have the bill take effect on passage was adopted by consent, and the bill passed as amended 9-0.
Read the bill at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/senate/174.