Calvin v. State

The Supreme Court rejected the State’s invitation to graft new language onto Indiana’s habitual-fender statutes, which count all prior non-Indiana felonies as Level 6 felonies and do not allow a habitual-offender findings based only on two Level 6 felonies.Defendant was convicted of Level 4 felony burglary and found to be a habitual offender based on two prior Illinois convictions. On appeal, Defendant challenged the habitual-offender enhancement, arguing that two Level 6 felonies could not support the enhancement. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) the fact that, under Indiana’s habitual-offender statutes, all non-Indiana felonies count as Level 6 felonies is peculiar and leads to incongruous results, but separation of powers and strict construal of criminal statutes stop the court from declaring it absurd; and (2) Defendant’s two Illinois felonies count as Level 6 felonies under the habitual-offender statutes, but because a habitual-offender enhancement based on only two Level 6 felonies is not allowed, Defendant’s habitual-offender enhancement is reversed as unsupported by sufficient evidence. View "Calvin v. State" on Justia Law