Attorney general asks state Supreme Court to review Pelley case

WSBT-TV, Tribune Staff Report

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Robert Jeffrey Pelley enters the St. Joseph County Courthouse in July 2006. He was convicted on all four counts of murder. (Tribune Photo/SANTIAGO FLORES)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: May 8, 2008 at 10:31 AM EST

Story Updated: May 8, 2008 at 2:09 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS — The office of Attorney General Steve Carter has asked the Indiana Supreme Court review Jeffrey Pelley’s quadruple murder case.

An Indiana Court of Appeals recently overturned Pelley’s four murder convictions on the grounds that prosecutors took too long to bring Pelley to trial.

A delay in the case was the result of a legal battle between prosecutors and the Family and Children’s Center over access to records of the Pelley family before four members of that family were shot to death in their Lakeville home.

A petition filed Wednesday by the attorney general argues that prosecutors had no control over the delay, and that it should therefore not be interpreted as a violation of Criminal Rule 4 (C), which guarantees every defendant a speedy trial.

“So on behalf on the public, this a horrendous crime where people were killed. But it's important that we present the best case any time you take it to a jury or to the bench, that’s what was being done here," Attorney General Steve Carter told WSBT News by phone. "And if it can’t be done in this case, we’re concerned that other prosecutors will face the same restriction in the future. That will be bad for people throughout Indiana.”

Should the Indiana Supreme Court accept transfer of the case, it could take several months or more for it to return a decision. Should it decline the state’s petition, the appellate court’s decision would stand and Pelley would be freed.

Pelley, who was charged in 2002 with the 1989 murders of his parents and two of his siblings, is serving a 160-year sentence at the Indiana Department of Correction.

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