Attempted murder in Indiana is a Level 1 felony punishable by 20 to 40 years in prison, with an advisory sentence of 30 years and a fine of up to $10,000. The charge is singled out by statute as more serious than most attempts, and the real exposure can climb well past 40 years once firearm and habitual-offender enhancements enter the picture. Because murder requires a knowing or intentional killing, the prosecution has to prove the defendant specifically meant to cause death, not just to injure or threaten. That single element is where most of these cases are fought.
What the Prosecution Has to Prove
Under Indiana Code 35-41-5-1, a person commits an attempt when they act with the mental state required for the underlying crime and take a “substantial step” toward completing it. Most attempts are classified at the same level as the completed offense. Attempted murder is treated differently: the statute fixes it as a Level 1 felony regardless of how other classification rules would work.1Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-41-5-1 – Attempt
Murder in Indiana means knowingly or intentionally killing another person, so the prosecution has to prove that same mental state on an attempt charge.2Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-42-1-1 – Murder Showing the defendant wanted to badly hurt someone is not enough. The evidence has to establish that the purpose was to cause death.
The substantial step requirement is a low bar. Indiana courts describe it as any overt act that goes beyond mere preparation and strongly corroborates the intent to kill. Acquiring a weapon and traveling to a target’s location, stalking, or making statements about plans to kill can all qualify. The Indiana Supreme Court has held that courts look at what the defendant actually did rather than what remained undone, and that intent to kill can be inferred from using a deadly weapon in a manner likely to cause death.3Justia. Zickefoose v State, 388 NE2d 507
Prosecutors build the intent element from physical evidence, witness accounts, forensic analysis, and the defendant’s own words and conduct. Firing a gun at someone’s chest invites a very different inference than throwing a punch during a bar fight. That distinction is often the whole case.
The Sentence Range
A Level 1 felony conviction carries a fixed term of 20 to 40 years with a 30-year advisory sentence, plus a potential fine of up to $10,000.4Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-4 – Class A Felony; Level 1 Felony The advisory number is the judge’s starting point, adjusted up or down based on the facts. Even the minimum is 20 years in prison.
Enhancements That Stack on Top
Two statutory enhancements can add decades to the base sentence.
Firearm Enhancement
If the state proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly or intentionally used a firearm in the offense, the court may add 5 to 20 years. The enhancement runs on top of the base sentence, which means an attempted murder conviction involving a firearm could reach 60 years. The same 5-to-20-year enhancement applies when the firearm was pointed at or discharged at a person the defendant knew or should have known was a police officer.5Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-11 – Firearm Used in Commission of Offense
Habitual Offender
A defendant with two or more prior unrelated felony convictions — at least one more serious than a Level 6 or former Class D felony — can be found a habitual offender. For a Level 1 felony, that finding adds another 8 to 20 years, and the additional term cannot be suspended.6Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-8 – Habitual Offenders A habitual offender convicted of attempted murder with a firearm could face up to 80 years once everything stacks.
What Moves a Judge Up or Down
Indiana sentencing works through a structured weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors. The judge balances the two and lands somewhere inside the statutory range.
Common aggravators in attempted murder cases include prior felony or delinquency convictions, a victim under 12 or at least 65, a victim with a disability, committing the offense in the presence of someone under 18, violating a protective or no-contact order, and causing harm significantly greater than the offense requires.7Justia. Indiana Code Title 35, Article 38, Chapter 1 – Entry of Judgment and Sentencing
Mitigators push in the other direction. No criminal history, provocation by the victim, substantial grounds that tend to excuse the conduct short of a legal defense, undue hardship to dependents from imprisonment, restitution, and evidence of a character likely to respond to rehabilitation can all move a sentence closer to the 20-year floor.
Defenses That Actually Get Raised
Most defenses in these cases aim at the specific-intent element, with a smaller set attacking the act itself or offering a legal justification.
Lack of Specific Intent
This is the usual front line. If the evidence shows the defendant wanted to injure, scare, or threaten but not to kill, the attempted murder charge should fail. Firing a gun into the air during an argument reads very differently from firing into a torso. The defense works the inconsistencies, the circumstances of the act, and whether lethal intent is really the only reasonable reading of what happened. Reasonable doubt on that point is enough.
Self-Defense
Indiana’s self-defense statute is broad. A person may use reasonable force to protect themselves or someone else from what they reasonably believe is the imminent use of unlawful force, with no duty to retreat. Deadly force is justified when the person reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury or a forcible felony.8Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-41-3-2 – Use of Force to Protect Person or Property The belief has to be one a reasonable person in the same situation would share. Excessive or retaliatory force breaks the defense.
Voluntary Abandonment
Indiana recognizes abandonment as a defense to attempt charges. The defendant must have voluntarily given up the effort and voluntarily prevented the crime from happening. Both halves matter, and the decision to stop has to be self-motivated rather than forced by getting caught or interrupted. Setting the weapon down and walking away is a plausible abandonment claim. Running because police arrived is not.9Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-41-3-10 – Abandonment
Insanity and Guilty but Mentally Ill
A defendant is not criminally responsible if, due to a severe mental disease or defect, they were unable to appreciate the wrongfulness of their conduct at the time of the offense. The statute defines mental disease or defect narrowly: a severely abnormal condition that grossly impairs perception, and it cannot be shown solely by a pattern of criminal or antisocial behavior.10Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-41-3-6 – Mental Disease or Defect
Indiana also allows a “guilty but mentally ill” verdict. The sentence is the same as a straight guilty finding, but the Department of Correction has to evaluate and treat the mental illness during incarceration, and a probation court may order treatment as a condition. This option covers defendants who were mentally ill at the time of the offense but do not clear the higher insanity threshold.11Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-36-2-5 – Finding or Plea of Guilty but Mentally Ill
Plea Bargaining
Most attempted murder cases in Indiana resolve by plea. A defendant may plead to the original charge in exchange for a sentencing recommendation, or plead to a lesser offense. The state secures a conviction without a trial; the defendant may do significantly less time than a jury verdict would produce.
Judges have to approve any plea agreement, confirming the defendant entered it voluntarily and understands the consequences, and evaluating whether it serves the interests of justice. That approval is not automatic. Judges sometimes reject plea deals they view as too lenient given the facts, especially where the victim was seriously injured. The quality of defense counsel at this stage often determines whether a defendant walks away with 15 years or 30.
Life After an Attempted Murder Conviction
A felony this serious reaches well past the prison sentence.
Firearms
Under Indiana law, a convicted felon is not a “proper person” to receive a handgun license. A separate federal ban under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) prohibits anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year of imprisonment from possessing any firearm or ammunition.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 Attempted murder clears that line easily. Restoring Indiana firearm rights generally requires expungement, but the federal prohibition operates independently and does not lift just because a state record is cleared. People get bad advice here, and possession in violation of the federal ban carries up to 10 years in federal prison.
Immigration
For non-citizens, the consequences are severe. Federal law classifies murder as an aggravated felony, and separately classifies any attempt to commit an aggravated felony as itself an aggravated felony.13Legal Information Institute. 8 USC 1101(a)(43) – Aggravated Felony An aggravated felony makes a non-citizen deportable, bars nearly all forms of relief from removal, and permanently prevents future admission to the United States.
Voting
Indiana strips voting rights during incarceration for a criminal conviction but restores them on discharge. The Department of Correction must inform a person in writing of the right to register when they are released. Eligibility returns once the full sentence, including any parole or probation, is complete.14Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 11-10-12-4 – Certification of Discharge; Informing
Employment, Housing, and Licensing
A violent felony shows up on nearly every background check. Employers in fields involving vulnerable populations, money, or security clearances will almost always disqualify applicants with attempted murder on their record. Landlords regularly screen for violent felonies, and professional licensing boards in healthcare, law, education, and finance routinely deny licenses based on this kind of history. For many people these day-to-day barriers end up more limiting than the formal legal consequences.