“Violent” Movements During Indiana Execution Raise Unanswered Questions

Benjamin Ritchie’s exe­cu­tion in Indiana on May 20, 2025, has raised new con­cerns about the use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal after defense coun­sel report­ed their client dis­played an unusu­al phys­i­cal reac­tion after being inject­ed with the drug. But because Indiana offi­cials bar media wit­ness­es from observ­ing exe­cu­tions, the pub­lic has no inde­pen­dent wit­ness reports on what transpired.

Steve Schutte, an attor­ney for Mr. Ritchie, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that Mr. Ritchie made what appeared to be ​“vio­lent” move­ments, lift­ing his head and shoul­ders abrupt­ly from the gur­ney soon after it is believed the drugs began to flow. 

Two addi­tion­al wit­ness­es at Mr. Ritchie’s exe­cu­tion cor­rob­o­rat­ed Mr. Schutte’s account. But an Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) spokesper­son dis­put­ed these obser­va­tions, telling the Capital Chronicle that Mr. Schutte’s account ​“is not an accu­rate descrip­tion of the cir­cum­stances” and main­tain­ing that Mr. Ritchie’s ​“exe­cu­tion was com­plet­ed accord­ing to pro­to­col.” 

These con­flict­ing accounts under­score the val­ue of hav­ing media wit­ness­es avail­able to pro­vide inde­pen­dent accounts of exe­cu­tions. Indiana is one of only two states that pre­vent media wit­ness­es from observing executions.

[C]learly, this was botched …[pen­to­bar­bi­tal] should be real­ly, real­ly effec­tive — real­ly fast. No one should move.

Dr. Jonathan Groner, Emeritus Clinical Professor of Surgery, Ohio State University College of Medicine, quot­ed by the Capital Chronicle

Dr. Jonathan Groner, Emeritus Clinical Professor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine told the Capital Chronicle that what Mr. Schutte and oth­er wit­ness­es described is ​“not what is sup­posed to hap­pen” when pen­to­bar­bi­tal is admin­is­tered. 

Dr. Groner said ​“clear­ly, this was botched,” adding that pen­to­bar­bi­tal ​“should be real­ly, real­ly effec­tive — real­ly fast. No one should move…It’s just lights out, go to sleep, no reac­tion, no cough­ing, no noth­ing. They just don’t move.”

Ahead of Mr. Ritchie’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion, five news out­lets, includ­ing the Capital Chronicle, filed a law­suit seek­ing access to exe­cu­tions, includ­ing Mr. Ritchie’s. The suit argued that Indiana’s law dis­crim­i­nates against jour­nal­ists by allow­ing spir­i­tu­al advi­sors and fam­i­ly mem­bers to attend while bar­ring mem­bers of the press. 

Judge Matthew Brookman denied the news out­lets’ request, not­ing that ​“at bot­tom, Indiana law treats mem­bers of the press the same as mem­bers of the pub­lic at large” and should not be accord­ed ​“dif­fer­en­tial treatment.”

Reporters may now only wit­ness an exe­cu­tion if cho­sen to fill one of five spots allot­ted to the pris­on­er; last December, a media wit­ness report­ed on the exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran after being includ­ed on Mr. Corcoran’s guest list.

“It’s real­ly impor­tant that jour­nal­ists are present to bear wit­ness to this exer­cise of power…I think the state wants us to look away from the idea of the death penal­ty. And maybe to a cer­tain extent, peo­ple want to look away and not wit­ness the death penal­ty being enact­ed, but I think it’s incum­bent upon cit­i­zens, if they endorse this action — per­haps espe­cial­ly if they endorse this action by a state gov­ern­ment — to acknowl­edge that it takes place, and to look at it.” — Gerry Lanosga, Professor of Journalism at Indiana University, on the impor­tance of media pres­ence dur­ing exe­cu­tions, to the Capital Chronicle

A November 2024 sur­vey from the Death Penalty Information Center found that only Indiana and Wyoming pro­hib­it the pres­ence of media wit­ness­es dur­ing exe­cu­tions. Some states allow media access only at the dis­cre­tion of the depart­ments of cor­rec­tion, and gen­er­al­ly, states dif­fer on whether the depart­ments of cor­rec­tion select indi­vid­ual jour­nal­ists or des­ig­nate media out­let which are then per­mit­ted to select the jour­nal­ist who will attend.

Observers have not­ed that media can pro­vide an essen­tial check on gov­ern­ment pow­er, giv­en that exe­cu­tions are not pub­lic, and because many exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols and process­es are kept secret by law or prac­tice. Journalists can func­tion as cru­cial inter­me­di­aries for the pub­lic, mon­i­tor­ing how state offi­cials con­duct exe­cu­tions and spend tax­pay­er dol­lars. 

As Rhonda Cook, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter who has wit­nessed 28 exe­cu­tions, explains: ​“We’re the ones that are there as the eyes and ears of the pub­lic, and we’re there to ensure that the state does it cor­rect­ly.” The over­sight role of media wit­ness­es is espe­cial­ly impor­tant when offi­cial gov­ern­ment state­ments on exe­cu­tions con­flict with oth­er wit­ness obser­va­tions, or when there are com­pli­ca­tions dur­ing the execution.

For exam­ple, when Kenneth Smith was exe­cut­ed by nitro­gen gas in January 2024: Alabama pub­licly assured the pub­lic and the courts that nitro­gen gas would cause ​“uncon­scious­ness in sec­onds,” yet wit­ness­es report­ed that Mr. Smith ​“shook and writhed” for at least four min­utes. 

Despite the con­tra­dic­tion between expec­ta­tions and obser­va­tions, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told the press that the process was ​“text­book.” Media wit­ness­es, how­ev­er, report­ed about the anom­alies. Lee Hedgepeth, a reporter who has wit­nessed sev­er­al exe­cu­tions, said that ​“this was the fifth exe­cu­tion that I’ve wit­nessed in Alabama, and I have nev­er seen such a violent reaction[.]”

In December 2024, Indiana car­ried out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years, admin­is­ter­ing a lethal injec­tion to Joseph Corcoran. This exe­cu­tion marked the state’s shift away from its pre­vi­ous­ly used three-drug pro­to­col to reliance only on pen­to­bar­bi­tal — a fast-act­ing bar­bi­tu­rate often used as a seda­tive in med­ical pro­ce­dures. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved pen­to­bar­bi­tal for use in exe­cu­tions or caus­ing human deaths, and the Department of Justice with­drew a sim­i­lar pro­to­col in the wan­ing days of the Biden Administration because of seri­ous con­cerns regard­ing its use.

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Hayley Bedard, May 22, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde