SOUTHERN INDIANA — In June 2021, a state law that allows someone to be prosecuted if that person provides drugs that lead to an overdose death was used for the first time in Southern Indiana.
While prosecutors in Clark and Floyd counties say the law is a good tool to have, it can be difficult to enforce and investigate, and that continuing to aggressively pursue drug dealers in general may be more effective.
Indiana House Bill 1359, authored by Rep. Gregory Steuerwald, was signed into law in July 2018 in response to a rise in opioid use and related deaths across the state. The law stipulates that a person can be charged with a level 1 felony if an individual dies after the accused has manufactured or dealt cocaine, methamphetamine or a schedule I, II, or III controlled substance, which includes heroin and opioids.
Level 2 and 3 felonies can be charged for deaths caused by drugs in the lower schedules.
The aim is to hold those accountable who contribute to drug deaths in the state. Local health departments confirmed 41 drug-related deaths in Clark County so far this year, and 16 in Floyd County. While both counties have seen a shift more toward methamphetamine from opioids over the past couple of years, Clark County had a resurgence of opioids during the pandemic, which is now declining.
The June criminal case involves a woman accused of smuggling heroin and fentanyl into the Clark County jail in a body orifice, then providing some to another inmate apparently in exchange for use of her phone pin number. Court record show the inmate who received the drugs began having a seizure soon after investigators say she was given the drugs and later died at the hospital.
The case also includes statements from other witnesses in the cell and jail surveillance footage. Clark County
Prosecutor Jeremy Mull said it’s not that common to have such evidence that can link a person to an overdose death.
“The evidence in this case was more easily attainable and collectible,” due to it allegedly happening in jail, he said. “But it’s different than a case where we find a deceased individual and just have to start working back.”
First, it would require local police agencies having the resources to dedicate a lot of time specifically to tracing where an individual received the drugs, Mull said. To complicate that, it would have to be proven it happened in Clark County jurisdiction and that the drugs given were the ones that killed the person.
“So there is just a variety of significant hurdles you have to overcome to make such a case, and it does require a lot of resources being put into that,” he said.
Otherwise, it can sometimes make more sense to charge a person with something that has more evidence, such as dealing, which can be as high as a level 2 felony.
“If you come upon a house and someone has died, and there are interested people in there and lots of drugs and you’re able to tie those drugs into them, obviously you can charge them with things where the proof would be stronger,” Floyd County Prosecutor Chris Lane said.
But he added that “when the evidence is there, that’s a worthy charge because that really does relate to what they’ve done,” Lane said. “They provided drugs to people which ultimately caused them — if you can prove it — to die.”
Mull said local officers are already working hard to bust dealers in the community, and that a return to minimum non-suspendible sentences for certain drug offenses could take some drugs off the streets.
“We need to identify the individuals in our community who are dealing in drugs, we need to arrest those individuals...and then they need to be imprisoned for a significant prison sentence,” he said. “I think if you take that attack in your community, you’re going to see a great reduction in overdose deaths that would not require utilizing this law.”
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