Post-Conviction Process

Indiana Post-Conviction Relief Facts

The following information is intended as an informative source and does not constitute legal advice and does not establish or imply an attorney-client relationship between you and the Indiana Innocence Project.

You may not file a Petition for Post-Conviction Relief until:

Post-conviction relief is a collateral review process where you may challenge your conviction and/or sentence based on grounds that were unknown and/or unavailable during the direct appeal stage.
The PCR process begins by you filing a pro se (meaning “for oneself) Petition for Post-Conviction Relief. Blank PCR Petitions are available in the law libraries in all Indiana Department of Correction adult facilities.
Most of the information requested in the blank PCR Petition is background information about you and your case. Some of the questions ask for more substantive information.
Specifically, Question 8 asks for you to state all the legal grounds known to you for vacating your conviction or sentence. Some examples of such grounds are 1) Ineffective assistance of counsel and 2) Newly discovered evidence. Question 9 asks you to state the facts that you believe support the legal grounds you raise in Question 8.
If in response to question 8(a) you state that you received ineffective assistance of trial counsel, in response to Question 9(a), you will set out all the facts that you believe show how your trial counsel was ineffective.
If you want to have counsel appointed to represent you, check “yes” in response to question 18(a) and then complete the affidavit of indigency on the last page.
Once the county clerk receives the copies of your PCR Petition, your case will be docketed. If you asked for the appointment of counsel and have shown you are indigent, the judge should appoint the State Public Defender’s office to represent you. The State Public Defender’s office will then assign an attorney to your case.
When the State Public Defender receives the petition from the court, the deputy public defender assigned to your case will review the complete record and your claims. If you have omitted any grounds which entitle you to relief, the petition will be amended to include those grounds.
While there is no specific time limit for filing a state PCR petition, delay creates a risk of facing defenses such as laches raised by the State. Also, because of the 1) one-year time limit for filing habeas corpus petitions in federal court, and 2) since all federal constitutional claims must be presented to a state court before federal review, please review the federal habeas fact sheet and keep the one-year limit in mind when deciding the timing of filing your state post-conviction relief petition. Filing your petition in state court will stop the running of the one-year federal period.
We encourage you to complete the form and send it to the trial court clerk as soon as you can. If your PRC is unsuccessful, you may want to seek habeas corpus relief in federal court. Please see our Federal Habeas Corpus Fact Sheet for more information.

Indiana's History of Post-Conviction Remedies

1851

The Beginning

Enacted in 1851, Section 27 of the Indiana Constitution provides:

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, except in case of rebellion or invasion; and then, only if the public safety demand it.

1851

Today

Processing the Constitutional Right

Today, in order to provide a process for this constitutional right, the Indiana Rules of Post-Conviction Relief were adopted and specify that a pleading entitled writ of habeas corpus should be treated as a petition for post-conviction relief under the rules.

All claims filed in a post-conviction relief petition require proof of harm.

Today

Indiana PCR Claims

Available claims in Indiana state post-conviction relief include:

Newly Discovered Evidence
Violation of Constitutional Rights
Right to Effective Assistance of Defense Counsel
Right to Due Process, meaning the state cannot hide favorable evidence or present false facts.

Indiana PCR Claims

Dwayne Scruggs, 1993

Indiana’s Early Exonerations

One of Indiana’s earliest exonerations is Dwayne Scruggs, represented by the Office of the State Public Defender and deputy Hope Fey. Mr. Scruggs was cleared by DNA in 1993 and released with the agreement of the prosecutor. The Indiana Supreme Court had upheld his conviction despite an improper evidentiary harpoon. Scruggs v. State, 522 N. E. 2d 1058 (Ind. 1987).

Dwayne Scruggs, 1993

Larry Mayes, 2002

The Nation’s 100th Exoneration

The 100th national exoneration was Larry Mayes, convicted in Lake County Indiana, in 1981. He wrote the national New York Innocence Project in 1996, and the Innocence Project contacted Fran Watson at IU McKinney. Professor Watson and students filed Mr. Mayes petition in July 2001. After DNA testing established Mr. Mayes’ was not the assailant, he was released December 21, 2002.

During the post-conviction discovery proceedings, it was revealed for the first time that the victim had been able to identify Mr. Mayes in court only after being hypnotized. Thus, the State withheld exculpatory evidence that would have made the in court identification inadmissible.

Larry Mayes, 2002