Following impassioned debate on the House floor, a bill that would have added this controversial method of carrying out the death penalty in Indiana was defeated in a close vote. Rep. Bob Morris (R-Fort Wayne), a Catholic lawmaker who last year introduced legislation to abolish the death penalty altogether, was among those appealing to his colleagues to vote no on House Bill 1119.
“We have executed people in this country wrongfully,” Rep. Morris told his fellow House members before their vote on Jan. 28. “One thing is for certain: You will never bring that life back when it is gone.”
Calling execution by firing squad inhumane and the effort to bring this method to Indiana “taking a step backwards,” Rep. Morris called for a renewed look at capital punishment in the Hoosier state. Currently, only lethal injection is allowed by law to carry out the death penalty, although lawmakers backing House Bill 1119 argued that the high cost of the drugs involved as well as supply issues have created the need for alternate methods.
“I’m against every means of capital punishment until this body can debate it,” Rep. Morris said. “Stand here and tell me the best way to execute a life. I’m a pro-life legislator, and I know many of you are as well. Vote this down and let’s start the discussion on capital punishment.”
House Bill 1119, authored by Rep. Jim Lucas (R-Seymour), was rejected on a narrow 48-46 vote, failing to reach the 51 votes needed for constitutional majority. An earlier version of the bill had also proposed nitrogen hypoxia — lethal gas — as an additional method of execution for Indiana, but that portion had been amended out before the final House vote.
Prior to the vote on the House floor, Rep. Morris had been joined at the podium by other lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle calling for the bill to be rejected.
“There was some really heartening movement of the Holy Spirit as this debate was happening and moving people’s hearts,” said Alexander Mingus, ICC executive director, the public policy voice of the Catholic Church in Indiana. “Even those we know are supportive of the death penalty conceptually said that the firing squad is not the way to go.”
The ICC had strongly objected to the bill throughout the first half of the legislative session, along with a similar measure in the Senate that never received a vote.
Now that the Indiana General Assembly has reached its midpoint, known as crossover, bills that are still active move from one legislative chamber to another. Another death penalty-related measure — House Bill 1432 — passed unanimously on a 96-0 vote and now moves to the Senate for consideration.
That bill, which the ICC supports, creates a framework to screen out anyone with a defined intellectual disability from being eligible for the death penalty.
Source: evdiomessage.org, Victoria Arthur, February 6, 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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