State Supreme Court limits judges' power

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that parts of the state's prison sentencing laws were unconstitutional -- a decision that will forbid judges from going beyond standard sentencing for crimes without a jury's approval.\nThe decision brings Indiana in line with a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.\nThe state court said judges have too much power in determining the length of prison terms by using facts not decided by a jury.\n"We hold today that portions of Indiana's sentencing scheme violate the Sixth Amendment's right to trial by jury," the court said in the decision written by Chief Justice Randall Shepard.\nJuries consider guilt or innocence, but judges can add time to sentences by making factual decisions about prison time by considering factors like a pattern of criminal activity or whether a defendant committed perjury during trial. The court said that violates a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.\nThe Indiana Supreme Court stopped short of tossing out the state's entire sentencing system, however. It suggested the state could use standard sentences with added time for aggravating factors as long as juries ruled on those circumstances.\n"The unconstitutionality of Indiana's present sentencing system hardly nullifies the entire arrangement," Shepard wrote.\nThe court's ruling will affect cases in which a defendant has been found guilty but not yet sentenced and those cases currently on appeal.\nIn January, the U.S. Supreme Court threw the federal sentencing system into turmoil when it ruled that the way judges have been sentencing some 60,000 defendants a year is unconstitutional.