By The Indiana Capital Chronicle
INDIANAPOLIS — A bill that would reform how the state oversees prosecutors now heads to the Senate, where it’ll get further vetting before it could potentially become law.
Lawmakers have tried for years to punish prosecutors who don’t prosecute certain laws — like Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat who’s said his office won’t criminally prosecute possession of one ounce or less of marijuana and won’t “waste one resource” prosecuting women or medical professionals involved in abortion cases.
The House approved its latest attempt Wednesday on a 72-24 vote, largely along party lines.
“I think we all agree it’s our job to make the law and it’s their job to enforce that,” said author Rep. Chris Jeter, R-Fishers.
House Bill 1006 — a Republican priority — creates a board to investigate prosecutors who “categorically refuse to prosecute” criminal laws. If the board labels a prosecutor as “noncompliant,” the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council must withhold certain funding.
The legislation also includes support. It sets up a fund to reimburse counties for deputy prosecuting attorney compensation and administrative expenses, and establishes a special prosecutor unit to boost the number of attorneys qualified to take on special prosecutor roles.
Jeter painted the latter as a way to further “competition for the legal talent in our state,” which could be significant as Indiana navigates its attorney shortage.
But Rep. Matt Pierce, a Democrat from Bloomington, deemed it a “slippery slope” that takes power away from local voters.
“Every four years, the voters get to decide whether they like the way that prosecutor allocates their resources and how they’re prioritizing which crimes to prosecute,” Pierce said. “… I think that if you’re gonna be for a democracy and for the idea of people making decisions for themselves through their elected officials, I think we should respect that.
Otherwise, duly elected prosecutors who “make decisions that we don’t like” will have “four or five other prosecutors looking over their shoulders and then deciding if they’ve done something wrong,” Pierce said.
— The Indiana Capital Chronicle covers state government and the state legislature. For more, visit indianacapitalchronicle.com.
