INDIANAPOLIS – As the gavel fell on the 2021 Legislative Session until an undetermined future date, House Democratic Leader Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne) highlighted the work done by the Indiana House Democratic Caucus on their legislative priorities.

“This session was wholly unprecedented,” GiaQuinta said. “We had to adapt to an ever-changing environment and find new ways to approach the legislative process in light of the pandemic. However, in uncertain times, House Democrats stood steady in fighting for Hoosiers.”

Several House Democrat priorities were made possible this year, including:

Supporting traditional public schools and raising teacher pay

“For too long, the traditional public schools used by the vast majority of Indiana students have watched as their funds are diverted into unaccountable charter and private schools. At the same time, stagnating teacher pay has created a growing crisis of losing talented young educators to neighboring states that pay more. We fought this session on behalf of our schools and teachers and are happy to keep our commitment to fully fund schools that switched to online classes in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, a major increase in our budget for local and traditional public schools and the initiation of a program to hopefully give our teachers the pay raises they deserve.”

Pushing bipartisan solutions to criminal justice reform

“Last summer we came together with Governor Holcomb and our colleagues across the aisle to recommit to the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus’ agenda for criminal justice reform. I am proud to be able to say that we unanimously passed House Bill 1006 to mandate de-escalation training, enforce body-cam use and stop problematic officers from simply moving to a new department. It is a strong first step in crafting a more just Indiana for all Hoosiers and restoring faith in our law enforcement system.”

House Democrats will continue fighting for the priorities that didn’t see success this session:

Helping small businesses and working families

“Our Hoosier families and local businesses proved strong in weathering the challenges posed by COVID-19. We fought to get them support not just to fuel their recovery, but to build back a better, more supportive economy than we had before. We proposed a work share program, paid family and medical leave, a sales tax exemption for children’s diapers and a modernization of the state minimum wage. While we were able to secure valuable bipartisan recovery grants for small businesses, we could have done much more for the Hoosiers hit hardest by the pandemic.”

Reducing the cost of high-quality health care

“In the midst of a pandemic, the importance of affordable health care has never been clearer. But Hoosiers are still stuck paying higher drug prices than all of our neighboring states. At every stage of the 2021 session, we fought to regulate the middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry who drive up prices, and mandate transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. This will continue to be one of our top priorities. No one should have to choose between putting food on their table and paying for their medicine.”

Fostering fair and secure elections

“The right to vote is the foundation of all our freedoms. This year, we fought again to take politics out of the redistricting process. House Democrats strongly believe that voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around. Also, last year we regrettably saw our state refuse to expand mail-in voting in the middle of a pandemic. We fought this session to remove barriers to the vote by allowing all Hoosiers to vote by mail. This will remain a priority going forward, as we successfully blocked legislation that would have made it harder to exercise this right.”

Unfortunately, better results could have been accomplished for Hoosiers if House Republicans weren’t distracted by petty infighting.

“We’ve watched as bills were passed that would impede local health departments from protecting their citizens (SB 5), launch pointless, unconstitutional attacks on the governor for doing his job (HB 1123), devalue the teaching profession by lowering standards (SB 205), give away tax-funded school buildings to for-profit private schools (SB 358) and strip protections from our state’s vital wetlands (SB 389).

“We have to work together to put aside special interests and partisan platform promises to focus on the needs of Hoosiers. We got some good work done this session, but there is much more work left to do. The House Democratic Caucus will continue to listen to the people and look ahead to build a better tomorrow for our great state.”

THE WHEAT FROM THE CHAFF

GAVEL GAMUT By Jim Redwine

The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been Committed ….”

Our Declaration of Independence raised these issues and complained of King George III:

“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury; (and)

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses.”

The Book of Matthew uses the example of separating edible wheat from its husks as an analogy about dividing the good from the bad. In our legal system we almost always assign this task to judges with probably less than 3% of criminal cases being determined by a jury. The recent case involving the death of George Floyd, Jr. and the conviction of Derek Chauvin is one of those extremely rare jury events. However, this is not a column about that media saturated matter that took place in Hennepin County, Minnesota. I do predict that two of the issues raised by Chauvin when he appeals the guilty verdicts will be whether trial judge Peter Cahill should have granted Chauvin’s motions to change the venue of the trial and to sequester the jury. Those specific assigned errors will fall to the Minnesota state appellate judges and maybe work their way over to the federal judiciary before the saga crawls to an unsatisfactory halt. Shakespeare was right about the Law’s Delay. George Floyd, Jr’s. death was May 25, 2020.

What this week’s column is about is the American legal system’s mental gymnastics involving the relative imbalance between trial judges’ assumed ability to be objective versus that of jurors. Perhaps a few specific examples might help define the dichotomy. During my forty years as a trial judge in a small, rural county with only two judges, I was faced countless times with having to process cases about which I had personal knowledge. For example, a crime might be reported then the police or sheriff’s department would present me with a sworn affidavit in support of a request to arrest someone and/or to search their home. A great amount of detail about the alleged crime and the suspect would be laid out before me. Then later I would sit as a judge on the case.

Another fairly frequent circumstance might be I would know both the named victim and the defendant. I would sit on the case. In fact, I have remained as the deciding judge on countless cases at the request of victims, defendants and their legal representatives because they all wanted the cases resolved without delay and excessive cost and because everyone, including me, assumed I could separate the wheat from the chaff and both follow the law and be fair and objective. If I could do so, so can jurors. Black robes are a symbol not an inoculation against biased decision-making. Facts are what matter, not irrelevancies unconnected to the case at hand.

There are cases where judges should not serve and where the pool from which jurors are selected should be changed. But usually, judges and other people have the ability to take on the sacred mantle of administering justice whether they wear a black robe or not. Our legal system should afford to the citizenry that pays for it the same respect we assume for judges who are paid by it.

The delay, expense and great inconvenience caused by changes of venue and juror sequestration should be a last resort. This was true when we gained our independence and communication was untimely via printing presses and quill pens. How much rarer should such dire remedies be when finding a venue and jurors who have no knowledge of a case would require a trial beyond Mars?

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