What are the penalties for felonies under Indiana’s new criminal code? The Indiana legislature has dramatically changed the penalties for felonies.

As of July 1, 2014, Murder and the 4 classes of felonies will change to Murder and 6 levels of felonies. Under the old law, the range of penalties were:

Murder      45-65 years
Class A     20-50 years
Class B     6-20 years
Class C     2-8 years
Class D     0.5-3 years

Under the new law, the range of penalties will be:

Murder      45-65 years
Level 1     20-40 years
Level 2     10-30 years
Level 3     3-16 years
Level 4     2-12 years
Level 5     1-6 years
Level 6     0.5-2 years

For Murder and Level 1 felonies, the court may only suspend that part of the sentence in excess of the minimum sentence. For Level 2 and 3 felonies (except Level 2 and 3 controlled substance felonies), the court may only suspend the part of a sentence in excess of the minimum sentence if the person has a prior unrelated felony conviction. For all other felonies, the court will be able to suspend the entire sentence.

The penalties for crimes are dramatically changing. You should consult with experienced criminal defense lawyers such as Vonderheide & Knecht to understand and mitigate the possible penalties for a criminal offense.