Court Opinion

ID: 9505299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 20:03:18.942132+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:23.428952
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, C.J.,
concurring.
For the last several decades at least, Indiana law has assigned to judges the duty to decide sentences in criminal cases. Appellate court review of such trial court *701decisions has been highly deferential, but we have undertaken to review and revise sentences when persuaded that the trial court's sentence is "inappropriate."
As for death penalty and life without parole cases, the legislature has largely shifted the sentencing decision from judges and assigned it to juries I am inclined to think that we should be even less ready to set aside the sentencing judgment of jurors, and that the standard we adopted during the era of judicial sentence-ing should probably not apply to second-guess Indiana juries.
The parties here have not joined this question, however, and there appears no reason to reverse the jury's decision. Accordingly, I join in the Court's opinion.
DICKSON, J., joins.