Court Opinion

ID: 9505050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:00:51.652649+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:15.049013
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Chief Justice,
concurring.
Lest there be left some concern that the appellate rules and legal neglect have somehow conspired to work an injustice, the reader should know what the underlying issue is. Newton is seeking review of whether his sixty-five years for conspiracy and confinement should be 'served concurrent with rather than after life without parole for murder.
In 1994, Newton and a fellow member of the Fly Gang went to Ball State University intending to rob and kill someone. When the student they accosted had only car keys and pocket change, Newton shot him in the back of the head.
*194Newton’s lawyer managed to negotiate a plea agreement that dismissed the State’s death penalty request, in return for accepting LWOP for murder and open sentencing on the other felonies. The trial judge approved this deal, and made a bleak assessment of Newton as someone who “from a very young age” showed “singular disregard for the law” and “complete disregard for the rights of other people.” Newton has had a chance to challenge the effectiveness of the lawyer who represented him and the voluntary and intelligent nature of his own decision.