A new law targeting county prosecutors doesn’t mention Ryan Mears by name, but he is at least partly the inspiration behind it.
Indiana lawmakers passed legislation this year to form a review board to investigate local prosecutors who refuse to file charges for certain crimes.
It is the result of a yearslong effort by Indiana Republicans to restrain Mears, the Democratic Marion County Prosecutor who vowed early in his tenure not to prosecute cases involving small amounts of marijuana, instead focusing his office’s resources on violent crime.
The intention behind the bill is to ensure that prosecutors avoid making a “blanket refusal” to prosecute certain crimes, said State Rep. Chris Jeter, a Republican from Fishers who carried the bill.
“We’re not going to allow it in this state, and we’re certainly not going to give state funding to prosecutors who, because of their own priorities, don’t enforce the law,” Jeter, a business attorney, said during remarks on the House floor in February.
While Jeter did not mention Mears, other House lawmakers did.
And Mears told Fox59 that the new law was “deliberately targeted” at his office.
What remains unclear is whether the law will have enough teeth behind it to do what Republicans want.
How did we get here?
Mears has grown accustomed to being the target of Republican lawmakers in the Indiana General Assembly.
State Sen. Mike Young, a Republican from the west side, introduced a bill in 2020 that would have allowed the Indiana Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor in cases where a county prosecutor refuses to prosecute certain crimes.
The bill appeared to be a direct response to Mears’ new marijuana policy.
Both Young and Mears did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for comment.
The bill wasn’t successful that year, but Young and other Republican lawmakers introduced similar iterations of the bill in subsequent years.
Those efforts failed, as some lawmakers and groups like the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and Indiana Public Defender Council expressed concerns that such a law would take away prosecutorial discretion. The term broadly describes how prosecutors consider a range of factors — such as fairness, the severity of an alleged offense and strength of evidence — when deciding how to address individual cases.
“From the beginning, when we saw different iterations of the General Assembly wanting to impact prosecutorial discretion, we were very concerned about that,” Bernice Corley, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council, said in an interview with Mirror Indy.
Mears made another public declaration in 2022. Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion, Mears announced his office would not file charges against anyone who seeks or provides abortion care, despite Indiana’s near-total abortion ban.
State Sen. Aaron Freeman, a Republican from Indianapolis who has been a vocal critic of Mears, said the legislature has a duty to ensure the law is applied equally to everybody.
“The prosecutor here tells you what he’s going to do and what laws he isn’t going to follow,” Freeman told Mirror Indy in an interview. “If he’s that adamant that these laws shouldn’t be followed, then he needs to run for a different office.”
Freeman, a former Marion County deputy prosecutor, had filed a resolution that would have authorized the governor to suspend a prosecutor for failing to perform their official duties. The bill did not receive a hearing, but Freeman believes state lawmakers are moving in the right direction with the passage of Jeter’s bill.
“The state has a very vested interest in making sure downtown is safe,” said Freeman, “and if Indianapolis, Marion County is unwilling or unable to do that, I damn sure am, and the state’s absolutely in a position to do it as well.”
What’s in the new prosecutor law?
According to the text of House Enrolled Act 1006, anyone can file a complaint against a prosecutor accused of not following state law.
A board made up of five prosecuting attorneys would be responsible for investigating the complaint. If the board determines that the prosecutor is not complying with the law, the board would issue a report detailing its conclusions.
Critics of the law say it takes power away from voters who elected their prosecutor.
“They want to be able to play a role in a decision that a prosecutor makes, and that is foolish. They have no role in that,” said Robert Hammerle, a longtime criminal defense attorney in Indianapolis. “If there is an election, that’s the place to hold them accountable.”
Beyond issuing a report, though, the law doesn’t stipulate whether the prosecutor would suffer any real consequences.
Jeter, the bill’s author, declined Mirror Indy’s interview request. In a statement, he said the law is “a strong step toward addressing and holding rogue prosecutors accountable by creating the Prosecutor Review Board.”
Chris Naylor, executive director of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council, said he anticipates that any prosecutor would comply with a review board’s findings.
His group had opposed similar bills in previous sessions but did not oppose this year’s bill.
Meanwhile, some don’t think the issue is going away.
Corley said she wouldn’t be surprised to see legislators tweak the law next year.
“The General Assembly has shown a lot of commitment and interest to this topic, so I don’t imagine that it’s put to rest by the current language,” Corley said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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