Court Opinion

ID: 9505266
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:02:59.389528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:22.390807
License: Public Domain

RUCKER, J.,
concurring.
Largely for the reasons the majority expresses, I concur with the decision to deny Baird's request to file a successive petition for post-conviction relief. I write separately only to emphasize that Baird makes no claim based on his present mental state. I continue to believe that a sentence of death is inappropriate for a person suffering a severe mental illness. See Corcoran v. State, 774 N.E.2d 495, 502 (Ind.2002) (Rucker, J., dissenting). However, nowhere in his lengthy petition does Baird contend that he is now mentally ill and thus should not receive the ultimate penal sanction. Instead, Baird makes a variety of claims based on his mental illness at the time of the murders. But some of these claims already have been decided against Baird in earlier appeals. And others could have been raised in those same appeals but were not. In either event they are not now available for collateral review. With this additional understanding, I agree Baird has not met his burden of establishing there is a reasonable possibility that he is entitled to post-conviction relief.