Opinion ID: 2022193
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Life Imprisonment Instruction

Text: Saylor next argues that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury that a sentence of life imprisonment is an alternative to the death penalty violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Indiana Constitution. The State correctly responds that this Court resolved this precise issue in State v. Alcorn, 638 N.E.2d 1242 (Ind.1994), reh'g denied. Saylor's argument stems from 1993 amendments to Indiana Code § 35-50-2-3(b) that allowed a trial court to sentence a defendant convicted of murder to life imprisonment without parole or to death. The legislature similarly amended Indiana Code § 35-50-2-9(e), to allow the jury to make a recommendation of life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty in murder cases. The legislature specifically provided that these amendments applied to murders committed after June 30, 1993. 1993 Ind. Acts, P.L. 250, § 3. In Alcorn, the defendant was charged with murder in 1991 prior to the statutory amendments. This Court held that the trial court had no authority to apply the new statute in that case, because the statute by its own terms was inapplicable to crimes committed prior to June 30, 1993. Alcorn, 638 N.E.2d at 1246. In so doing, this Court explicitly rejected Alcorn's equal protection challenge to the statute's savings clause. Id. at 1244-45. As in Alcorn, Saylor was charged with a crime that occurred prior to June 30, 1993. Therefore, we reaffirm our holding in Alcorn and conclude that Saylor was not entitled to a life imprisonment instruction.