A bill that would allow executions by firing squad if lethal injection drugs are unavailable or at an inmate’s request is fueling ongoing debates over secrecy, drug costs and “humane” methods of capital punishment.
Senators on the Corrections and Criminal Law Committee spent an hour probing Republican Sen. Mike Young’s Senate Bill 11 — and some questioned whether it’s necessary at all — but no vote was held.
Committee Chairman Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, said the committee would consider amendments and a possible vote next week. Proposed amendments are due on Friday.
“This is not a debate about the death penalty,” Young, of Indianapolis, told the committee. “We have it in the state of Indiana. So, it’s not whether you think it’s good or whether you think it’s bad. The question here is, ‘What do we do if we only have one option in which to carry out a legal order by the courts in the state of Indiana?’”
Over the past year, Indiana officials have paid as much as $300,000 for a single dose, spending at least $1 million total to procure execution drugs. Gov. Mike Braun disclosed in June that at least $600,000 was spent on pentobarbital that expired before use, citing the drug’s short shelf life and difficulties obtaining it. Braun has since declined to disclose how much the state paid for the most recent doses, including at least one used in the October execution of Roy Ward.
Indiana should not be considering expanding its execution methods while significant issues of public accountability still exist.
– Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project and former executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center
Young’s bill is one of several death penalty-related measures pending in the 2026 session.
He argued that his proposal is designed to prevent Indiana from being forced into last-minute decisions if lethal injection drugs become unusable.
“If we have an order to carry out an execution, we go get the chemicals, and then we find out, ‘Well, those are out of date and they’re not going to work,’” the senator said. “There’s no way to really test to see if they work, other than apply them, and we don’t want to put a person’s life in anguish to find out whether or not the drugs work.”
Young also told lawmakers that manufacturers and pharmacies can refuse to sell execution drugs on moral grounds, further creating a need for an alternative method.
“We can’t force them to sell it to us,” he said. “We can’t force them to manufacture it.”
A ‘fail safe’ option
Under current Indiana law, executions can only be carried out by lethal injection.
Young’s bill details procedures for firing squad executions, requiring a five-member team made up of Department of Correction officers selected by the prison warden.
Four officers would fire weapons containing live ammunition, while one would fire a weapon containing a blank round, with firearms loaded in a way that prevents squad members from knowing which ammunition they are firing. The bill would also shield the identities of firing squad members from public disclosure and legal discovery.
Currently, five states authorize the use of firing squads under certain circumstances: Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
Young emphasized that the bill does not mandate the firing squad, but instead creates what he repeatedly described as a “fail-safe” option if lethal injection cannot be carried out.
He also cited the federal prison in Terre Haute, where the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has long carried out executions.
“If the federal government needs to carry out an execution here in Indiana and they can’t obtain the drugs, we shouldn’t be the reason that can’t happen,” Young said.
Before public testimony began, Sen. Rodney Pol, D-Chesterton, asked whether firing squads could pose similar constitutional problems as the electric chair decades ago if an execution did not result in immediate death.
“The idea that we were using the electric chair — it was inhumane,” Pol said. “Oftentimes, somebody would not perish … and you could have a situation in which, during the firing squad, somebody has not perished. … You’re laying witness to what potentially could be cruel and unusual punishment.”
But Young maintained that the central issue with any method is accuracy and avoiding such suffering.
Committee members also raised questions about who would be required to participate in a firing squad and whether staff could object on religious or moral grounds.
Young said he supports “conscience protections” and would not compel participation.
“I wouldn’t force somebody to take somebody else’s life,” he said. “If I was the warden, I’d probably take volunteers.”
Specifics still in the works
Five men currently sit on Indiana’s death row at the state prison in Michigan City, though one has been deemed incompetent to be executed.
Three other men have been executed in Indiana over the past year. In that time, scrutiny has mounted around the state’s execution process and the Department of Correction’s acquisition and handling of lethal injection drugs.
Many of the questions center on the cost, sourcing, storage and effectiveness of pentobarbital. The one-drug method is a departure from the state’s protocol used since 1995, involving a series of three chemicals.
Tuesday’s testimony highlighted concerns that chemical executions can fail or cause prolonged suffering if drugs degrade or are improperly administered. Questions have lingered, for example, around the quality of the drugs used in last year’s execution of Benjamin Ritchie.
Bill co-author Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that the firing squad could be structured to “minimize the risk of error.” He described a system using five shooters and rifles fixed in place by technicians so that all rounds strike the same point. The senator said he preferred live rounds and no blanks for all shooters.
“A technician would set the rifles up so all of the barrels are pointed at the same point of impact,” Tomes said. “They’re fixed. There’s no movement. The guns have been set so that the impact is all going to be at the same center of mass.”
Young was supportive, saying the goal is to ensure executions are carried out “efficiently and effectively so no person suffers.”
Opposition centers on secrecy, oversight
Opponents warned, though, that the bill would expand capital punishment while shielding “critical” details from public scrutiny.
Samantha Bresnahan of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana said Senate Bill 11 would impose “unprecedented secrecy” around executions by making confidential the identities of firing squad members and any information that could reasonably lead to their identification.
“That language is extraordinarily broad,” she said. “It could shield basic facts about training, qualifications, selection criteria and safeguards — precisely the information the public needs to evaluate whether this process is lawful, competent and free from misconduct.”
Even so, current Indiana law protects much of that information already, including the identities of the state prison’s execution team.
Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project and former executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, additionally testified in opposition, calling the bill “a solution in search of a problem.”
DOC silent, amendments ahead
Public defenders also questioned whether Young’s bill would meaningfully address the cost or availability of executions.
Zach Stock with the Indiana Public Defender Council said execution drugs are not a major cost driver compared with decades of litigation. He noted that since 1990, Indiana has spent more than $30 million on constitutionally-required defenses in capital cases.
“Trading expensive drugs for inexpensive bullets is not going to meaningfully reduce the cost,” Stock said. “Method of execution has never been the problem.”
Faith-based groups raised concerns about the moral and psychological toll on those involved.
Roarke LaCoursiere of the Indiana Catholic Conference warned that participation in executions can cause long-term trauma for witnesses and staff.
“Under this bill, we would be asking five people to pull the trigger, not for the purpose of saving life, but for the purpose of ending it,” LaCoursiere said.
DOC officials were present at Tuesday’s hearing but did not testify publicly.
Young’s bill is one of several death-penalty-related measures so far filed in the short 2026 session.
House Bill 1119, authored by Reps. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, and Andrew Ireland, R-Indianapolis, would also allow executions by firing squad — or nitrogen hypoxia — while keeping lethal injection as the default method unless an inmate requests otherwise.
Another filed by Ireland, House Bill 1314, seeks to speed up post-conviction relief proceedings, likely reducing the time inmates spend on death row before execution.
Separately, House Bill 1287, filed by Rep. Bob Morris, R-Fort Wayne, would require members of the General Assembly to volunteer to serve on execution teams and make their names public records.
Last session, Morris unsuccessfully pushed to abolish Indiana’s death penalty entirely or, alternatively, to increase transparency around execution protocols.
Young said he expects multiple amendments to be filed to his bill before Friday’s deadline, including potential changes related to firing squad procedures.
“This is about making sure the state can carry out the law in a way that is orderly, constitutional and humane,” Young said. “We’re going to continue to work through the details.”
Source: indianacapitalchronicle.com, Casey Smith, January 7, 2026
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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