Death Penalty News

Indiana Death Chamber INDIANAPOLIS – With the possibility of an execution occurring yet this year, Indiana officials are standing by their death penalty process, despite controversies over prolonged lethal injections in other states. Doug Garrison, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Corrections, said officials are confident they have the right death penalty protocols in place to prevent the types of problems that recently marred executions in Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio. Michael Overstreet – who was sentenced to death in July 2000 for the 1997 murder, rape, and confinement of Kelly Eckart, an 18-year-old freshman at Franklin College – is likely to be the next inmate to face lethal injection. “He is the closest to reaching the end of the appeals process,” Garrison said. No execution date is set but Garrison said it could be later this year. The last Indiana execution was that of Matthew “Eric” Wrinkles in 2009. Overstreet’s execution comes...

Indiana Death Chamber from witness room The next time Indiana conducts an execution at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, a new drug will be part of its lethal injection protocol. The nationwide shortage of thiopental sodium, known by its trademark name Pentathol, forced states that conducted executions by lethal injection to search for other alternatives. Indiana Department of Correction spokesman Douglas S. Garrison said the state will use Brevital, a barbiturate anesthetic in the same class as thiopental sodium. Garrison said Indiana has a sufficient supply of drugs to carry out an execution. The three-drug protocol Indiana uses starts with Brevital, followed by pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. There are 13 inmates on the state’s death row in Michigan City, but none has a set execution date. Michael Overstreet, convicted in the 1997 strangulation of Kelly Eckart, 18, a Franklin College student, is next in line, Garrison said. “It could...