Brandon Thomas Woody

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Supreme Court has denied Brandon Woody’s petition to transfer his appeal to that court. The decision was issued Tuesday, Oct. 24, by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush.

Joseph Sobek, counsel for Woody, filed a petition to transfer the appeal Aug. 24, after the Indiana Court of Appeals denied the initial appeal.

The request to transfer included a request for the case to be remanded back to the original court for a new trial.

Woody is serving 120 years for the murder of Tara Thornburg and Josh Knisley Feb. 19, 2015, in Syracuse. He is incarcerated at the Miami Correctional Level Facility.

The three questions presented on the transfer were:

Was Woody’s right to confront all witnesses against him violated?

Should this Supreme Court revisit its jurisprudence as it relates to the excited utterance and dying declaration exceptions to the hearsay rules as scientific advances and research have rendered the underlying assumptions to these exceptions obsolete?

Did the potential abuse of discretion in the admission of Woody’s rap lyrics constitute reversible error?

In the brief order by Chief Justice Ruch, it states the court reviewed the decision of the Court of Appeals, and the submitted record on appeal, all briefs filed in the court of appeals and all materials filed in connection with the request to transfer jurisdiction have been made available to the court for review. “Each participating member has had the opportunity to voice that justice’s views on the case in conference with the other justices, and each participating member of the court has voted on the petition. Being duly advised, the court denies the petition to transfer.”