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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowUp until December, Indiana hadn’t executed a death row inmate since 2009.
In the span of seven months, the state has carried the executions of two inmates: Joseph Corcoran and Benjamin Ritchie.
Now, the Indiana Supreme Court has set a tentative October execution date for a third inmate, Roy Lee Ward.
Even with the recent executions, anti-death penalty advocates see a new momentum for the possible repeal of the state’s death penalty law in the 2026 legislative session amid some concerns about the cost and humaneness of lethal injection.
Rep. Robert Morris, R-Fort Wayne, has been one of the most outspoken legislators calling for the abolition of Indiana’s death penalty.
“It’s 2025, not 1825. We can house these prisoners today and feed these prisoners today in a humane manner,” Morris said, as he spoke to The Indiana Lawyer about his opposition to the death penalty.
He filed a repeal bill this year that failed to get a hearing, in spite of garnering some bipartisan support.
Morris said he intends to bring forward similar legislation in next year’s session.
Gov. Mike Braun has signaled in recent months that he’s open to legislative debate on the death penalty, particularly in light of the cost and limited shelf life of the drugs used in executions.
The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported the state spent $900,000 last year to obtain pentobarbital to carry out executions.
Braun told reporters in June the state needed to address the issue of whether capital punishment should be used and also possibly look at other execution methods.
The governor further disclosed that state officials spent $1.175 million on lethal injection doses over the past year — $600,000 of which was spent on drugs that expired before use.
Lethal injection is currently the only permissible method of capital punishment under Indiana law,.
Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith raised the issue of firing squads as an alternative option in a June social media post, linking to a story about a new Idaho law that made the firing squad that state’s primary method of execution.
“This is much cheaper than lethal injection. Indiana should follow Idaho’s lead on this,” Beckwith wrote in his post on X.
In an email to The Lawyer, Beckwith said, “Like a majority of Americans, I fully support the death penalty. I encourage Indiana to explore other options for capital punishment, including some that would be more cost effective.”
That statement raised concerns from death penalty opponents such as Chris Daley, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, who said he’s otherwise encouraged by the renewed legislative discussion on possible repeal of the death penalty.
For Daley, it would be a tragedy if the debate about the death penalty or the cost of pentobarbital led to Indiana employing firing squads that he described as “barbaric.”
“I think most Hoosiers would be appalled if that practice were used in our state,” Daley said.
Griffin Reid, Braun’s press secretary, said in an email the governor has said multiple times that he is open to hearing debate and that the General Assembly is the place to have that discussion.
Momentum for change?
Earlier this year, Morris authored House Bill 1030, which specified that if a person was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution of the death sentence, the person’s death sentence would be commuted to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
The bill has been sent to the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code, which is chaired by Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, but never received a hearing.
Morris told The Lawyer he will file another bill in the 2026 session.
“I want to try to spare the lives of those prisoners that are currently incarcerated,” Morris said, adding that he wants the state to stop using pentobarbital.
Morris said one of the biggest reasons he has for pushing for abolition is the use of state employees to carry out executions and the trauma endured by those employees.
He said many of his legislative colleagues are on board with his call to eliminate the death penalty.
The Fort Wayne legislator also decried the secrecy involved with the executions Indiana’s carried out.
“If we’re really trying to teach a lesson, why don’t we do it at a stadium that holds 80,000 people?” Morris said, adding that he also has concerns about the hundreds of thousands of dollars used to purchase execution drugs and the lack of transparency about where the drugs are purchased.
The Lawyer asked the Indiana Department of Correction if the governor has directed it to purchase the necessary doses of pentobarbital or another drug needed for Ward’s execution,, whether there was a cost estimate for those drugs, if competitive bidding would be used for the purchase and if a timeline had been set for procurement.
In response, spokeswoman Annie Goeller issued this statement: “DOC will continue to follow the protocol for executions and take the steps necessary to meet those requirements. We do not yet have any cost estimates or timelines to share.”
David Frank, president of the Indiana Abolition Coalition, a group opposed to the death penalty, said there is still momentum for repeal of the state’s death penalty.
“I think that’s where the Legislature is moving towards. That’s where the public is moving towards,” Frank said.
He said he felt a major impediment to any discussions on the death penalty is Attorney General Todd Rokita and his unreceptiveness to the idea of a repeal.
Rokita issued a statement following Ritchie’s execution in May, saying “justice was served” and the state had “reaffirmed our commitment to upholding the rule of law and protecting our communities.”
Ritchie had been convicted of murdering Beech Grove police officer William Toney in September 2000 and had been on death row since 2002.
Based on Braun’s recent statements, Frank said he considers the governor to be open to a debate on the death penalty’s future in Indiana.
If the Legislature were to bring Braun a bill repealing the death penalty, Frank believes the governor would sign it.
Another execution in Indiana?
Daley said there’s definitely an appetite for more conversations at the Statehouse on whether the death penalty is the right policy for Indiana.
He pointed to HB 1030 and the attention the bill received as a catalyst for some lawmakers to think about the death penalty in a different light.
The ACLU director called it a positive sign that Braun has acknowledged he has conflicting feelings about capital punishment.
Still, there are six men on Indiana’s death row, including Ward, a Spencer County man convicted in 2007 for the rape and murder of 15‑year‑old Stacy Payne.
Rokita’s office filed a motion in June to request an execution date for Ward.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush and the court’s other four justices set a tentative Oct. 10 execution date, although she acknowledged in the Supreme Court’s order that previous orders for Ritchie and Corcoran triggered federal litigation and petitions to the governor pleading for commutation of their death sentences.•
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