Deborah Daniels: Another criminal code reform might be necessary

A recent article posted at IBJ.com reported the addition of various new criminal code violations and increased penalties approved in the 2025 session of the Indiana General Assembly. For example, legislators created the crime of “swatting,” falsely reporting a crime in progress at someone’s home, resulting in the arrival of a fully armed SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team. They also made it a felony for a passenger in a car whose driver is engaging in criminal recklessness to point a firearm.

You can bet that some specific case led to that last one.

A little history might be in order. In the 1970s, there existed a criminal law study commission, significantly restructured in 1973 at the behest of then-Gov. Otis Bowen. The commission staff conducted far-reaching research on model crime legislation throughout the country. Its work resulted in a complete overhaul of Indiana’s criminal code, adopted by the General Assembly in 1976 and effective in 1977.  

Among other things, the legislation streamlined the code, making the elements of each crime easy to understand. The revision also created a precise range for each crime, within whose boundaries the judge is permitted to impose a sentence. The code was simple and straightforward.

Soon thereafter, legislators began to add laws based on newspaper stories or complaints from constituents, and the criminal code gradually expanded astronomically. Sometimes penalties were increased. Sometimes completely new (or duplicative) crimes were created.

My personal favorite was carjacking. Around 1990, criminals started forcing people out of their cars and taking the cars—usually at gunpoint—and a reporter in Detroit invented the term “carjacking” to describe the act. The General Assembly immediately decided it had to create a specific crime to describe this heinous act.  

But carjacking is simply robbery. Someone might forcibly take your purse, your car or your diamond tiara, but it is still robbery, which carries a significant penalty, particularly if the perpetrator was armed or caused injury.

Over time, the Indiana Code became crowded with all sorts of crimes and sentencing provisions that sometimes conflicted and resulted in a disorganized system, including in some cases disparate sentencing for like crimes and sentencing comparatively disproportionate to the crime.

So in 2009, the Indiana General Assembly created a new entity: the Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Study Committee. Its members represented stakeholders throughout the criminal justice system, along with legislators appointed by the leadership of the General Assembly. I chaired a research team composed of attorneys from the prosecuting attorneys council, state public defender council and others, to provide recommendations. Again, we conducted a comprehensive review and looked at model legislation, producing a proposed sentencing matrix that sought to bring coherence and proportionality to the criminal code (and get rid of duplicative crimes like carjacking).  The General Assembly adopted a new code in 2013 based on this work.

Our group strongly suggested that the General Assembly endeavor to maintain the integrity of the code by requiring that any suggested amendments be carefully vetted by an interim legislative study committee before being entertained in an always-chaotic legislative session. In fact, the 2009 committee was statutorily directed to report before each legislative budget session any additional recommendations. But that is clearly not happening, as evidenced by this year’s legislation.

For example, I would suggest that the new statute involving vehicle passengers pointing guns is duplicative of the existing criminal recklessness statute—making it this year’s equivalent of carjacking.

If this kind of one-off lawmaking continues, we’ll soon need Criminal Code Reform 3.0.•

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Daniels is a retired partner of Krieg DeVault LLP, a former U.S. Attorney and assistant U.S. attorney general and former president of the Sagamore Institute. Send comments to [email protected].

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