INDIANAPOLIS — A botched lethal injection in Tennessee should prompt Indiana to legalize firing squads, a Republican lawmaker said.
State Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, wrote legislation previously to authorize firing squads, but the bill failed to gain enough support. Lucas told Indiana’s I-Team he plans to introduce a similar bill during the next legislative session.
“It’s obviously necessary after that debacle we saw in Tennessee,” Lucas said.
The failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee sparked calls to stop Indiana’s scheduled execution of Jeffrey Weisheit. Indiana officials plan to execute Weisheit on Nov. 5. Like Tennessee, Indiana uses pentobarbital for lethal injections.
The Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) told Indiana’s I-Team it already purchased the drugs for the Weisheit execution.
The state executed three prisoners via lethal injection over the last three years. Doses of pentobarbital cost the state as much as $300,000.
“The drugs that we are currently using are getting harder to come by, they’re very expensive, and in Tennessee we found out they’re not very effective,” Lucas said.
Five states currently authorize firing squads.
While Indiana law only allows lethal injection, crews are building the new state prison in Westville to accommodate firing squads. When Indiana’s I-Team asked Republican Gov. Mike Braun about the future of the death penalty, he said the decision belongs to state lawmakers.
“It’s not an easy navigation. It’ll be up to them to have that discussion and I’ll weigh in accordingly,” Braun said in July.
Lucas said he is working with the IDOC and the Indiana Attorney General’s office to draft the new bill. He said he believes firing squads are a more humane way to execute a prisoner.
The previous bill Lucas wrote required a prison warden to select three people to carry out executions. All three would fire weapons loaded with live ammunition.
The law would keep their identities private. Their names would not be subject to discovery and could not serve as evidence in civil or criminal cases. The IDOC would hire a psychologist or psychiatrist to provide mental health services for the execution team.
The Indiana Abolition Coalition (IAC), which opposes the death penalty, argued firing squads present the same issues as lethal injections.
“The firing squad makes the violence of the death penalty explicit,” IAC Executive Director Stefanie Anderson said in a statement. “Additionally, this will negatively impact prison staff. Across states, those involved in executions experience mental health impacts from their proximity to taking life and this further hurts our community.”
Four other men remain on Indiana’s death row in addition to Weisheit.
Weisheit has two upcoming clemency hearings to avoid the death penalty. The first happens Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the Indiana State Prison. A public hearing follows on Saturday, Oct. 19, in Indianapolis.
