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Sunday, August 14, 2011

Ind. Courts - "Daniel Ray Wilkes's death sentence reduced to life without parole"

Updating a series of excellent stories about the sentencing retrial held in late June in Evansville (see ILB entries from June 22 and June 24, 2011), Evansville Courier & Press reporter Mark Wilson wrote in this story late Friday, August 12th:

EVANSVILLE — Daniel Ray Wilkes, convicted of the 2006 murders of an Evansville woman and her two children, had his death sentence reduced to life without parole on Friday.

The change was made after attorneys with the Indiana Public Defender's Office sought a retrial, modification of Wilkes' death sentence or a new sentencing hearing.

In a 50-page decision released Friday, Vanderburgh Circuit Court Judge Carl Heldt denied all of the issues raised by Wilkes' attorneys. However, he wrote that he altered Wilkes' sentence because a change in state law now broadened the factors he could consider in sentencing.

[Note: The ILB hopes to obtain and post a copy of the opinion on Monday.] [Updated 8/15/11] Here is the 50-page document.

The post conviction relief petition was a chance for state defenders to correct errors and raise issues they believed were not raised at trial.

Heldt presided over Wilkes's December 2007 trial, held in Clark County. When the jury deadlocked, with 11 jurors wanting to recommend a life sentence instead of death, state law required Heldt to decide Wilkes' punishment, but it prohibited him from considering how the jury was deadlocked when making his decision.

Heldt sentenced Wilkes to death. The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence but also ruled that trial judges could also now consider the jury's indecision.*

"Had this Court had the authority to consider the jury's inability to reach a penalty recommendation at the time of its original sentencing order, it would have sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment without parole," Heldt wrote. "This court finds that the inability of a jury to recommend the death penalty is a significant consideration."

Calling the death penalty "society's ultimate criminal sanction," Heldt wrote the jury's indecision required a sentence of life without parole.

There is much more in the story.

Here is a very long list of earlier ILB entries on Daniel Ray Wilkes.
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* ILB: See p. 22 of the 2009 Supreme Court opinion.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 14, 2011 12:40 PM
Posted to Ind. Trial Ct. Decisions