Clancy v. State

I concur as to Issues I, III, and IV. With respect to Issue II, I respectfully dissent.

It has long been the law in Indiana that criminal statutes are "strictly construed against the State." Sunday v. State, 720 N.E.2d 716, 719 (Ind.1999); see also e.g., Fahnestock v. State, 102 Ind. 156, 1 N.E. 872, 877 (1885). We look to the "plain, ordinary, and usual meaning of the language unless the statute itself provides a contrary meaning." Sunday, 720 N.E.2d at 718.

The statute defines the offense of false informing as the giving of "false information in the official investigation of the commission of…