INDIANAPOLIS — This from Fox59.com: Attorneys for Richard Allen will go before the Indiana Court of Appeals today, Monday September 21, 2026, to argue that their client deserves a new trial for his conviction of the murders of two girls outside of Delphi in February of 2017.
The bodies of Libby German and Abby Williams were discovered near the Monon High Bridge the day after they were reported missing.
The case was quiet until the fall of 2022, when a missing investigative report was discovered and sent detectives looking for Allen.
Following two years of pre-trial hearings and three weeks in court, Allen was found guilty and sentenced to 130 years in prison.
His team will now try to convince the appeals court that Allen did not receive a fair trial based on three arguments.
”One is they claim that the law enforcement misled the first judge in the case when they issued a search warrant to search Richard Allen’s home,” said Kevin Greenlee, an attorney and host of the “Murder Sheet” podcast who sat through every court hearing and the trial. “Gave false information or hid other bits of information.”
The attorneys will also attempt to explain away Allen’s confessions while he was held inside a maximum security prison before his trial.
”Richard Allen confessed or otherwise made incriminating statements 61 times,” said Greenlee. “They contend that those confessions should not have been admitted into the trial because they contend that Richard Allen was not in his right mind when he made those confessions.”
The State argues that Allen continued to confess to family members and others after his mental condition was stabilized with medication.
During the two years of pre-trial hearings and throughout the trial, Allen’s defense team was continually at odds with Judge Fran Gull.
”They feel that the defense team did not get a chance to fully present their defense at the trial,” said Greenlee. “The most significant element of that is the defense argued that the crime was actually committed by a group of white supremacists or Odinists.”
Indiana State Police investigated the potential that members of the pagan sect could have carried out the murders as a ritualistic sacrifice.
Gull ruled that there was no evidence linking Odinism practitioners to the murders.
”The defense of, ’Oh, they weren’t allowed to bring in their preferred defense, their preferred case,’ but, when you look at the law in Indiana, I think Judge Gull got it right,” said “Murder Sheet” co-host Aine Cain, who also was a courtroom fixture throughout the case. “I think she also has discretion as a trial judge to look at something and say, ’Okay, this has a nexus, this doesn’t.’”
In October of 2023, Judge Gull dismissed Allen’s original defense team, she said, in his best interests, only to be overruled by the Indiana Supreme Court.
”What they’re really going to be looking at here is more so the law of, ’Was it permissible for the judge to dismiss this defense? Did she follow the law and the rules of court around having a nexus or did she overstep and prevent them from doing something that they should have been allowed to do?’” said Cain. ”She let them get away with a lot in trial. Like there were points where she essentially allowed the defense to DJ their own exhibits, which is not typically something you usually see.”
Greenlee said the role of the Appeals Court is not to determine Allen’s guilt or innocence, but rather whether he received a fair trial.
”I feel the facts and the evidence show that he got a fair trial,” he said. “He was treated fairly throughout the entire process. All of his rights were protected.”
The time span of the investigation and trial matched the growth of the true crime social media industry and the attendance of its consumers and participants at the courthouse in Delphi.
While supporters continue to proclaim Allen’s innocence, the podcasters have noted that devotion has dropped off as time passes and more evidence is revealed in context.
”I think it’s likely that as people get more and more information about this case, as opposed to talking points from one side or the other, they will feel more comfortable with the result,” said Greenlee.
