Dan Carden

An Indiana law giving every convicted criminal the opportunity to personally address the judge prior to sentencing increasingly is seen as merely a nice touch instead of a statutory obligation.

On Friday, a divided Indiana Supreme Court agreed to let stand an October 2024 Court of Appeals ruling where Braven Harris, 21, a convicted murderer from Indianapolis, was not asked by his trial judge whether he wanted to exercise his right of allocution before being sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Judge Elizabeth Tavitas, a Lake County native writing for the appellate court, said the failure of Marion Superior Judge Jane Spencer Craney to fulfill her duty to ask Harris if he wanted to personally make a statement on his own behalf was not subject to appellate review because Harris did

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