INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The incoming Indiana attorney general has named a persistent critic of the state’s revamped criminal sentencing laws for a top position in the office.

Republican Attorney General-elect Curtis Hill on Monday announced the selection of Dearborn-Ohio County Prosecutor Aaron Negangard as his chief deputy.

Negangard has spent the past 10 years as prosecutor for the two counties in southeastern Indiana. He’s been a leader of the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and has criticized the 2014 sentencing law changes approved by the GOP-dominated Legislature as soft on drug dealers.

Hill is now prosecutor in Elkhart County and takes office as attorney general in January. The attorney general’s office doesn’t decide on county-level prosecution of crimes, but handles the defense of convictions in appeals courts.