The Indiana General Assembly is preparing for an abbreviated legislative session, but lawmakers will still delve into legal issues dealing with immigration, capital punishment and the removal process for prosecutors and Marion Superior Court judges.
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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.
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Last month, Indiana ended its 15-year pause on the execution of inmates sentenced to death. However, legislation already has been filed in the Indiana General Assembly that would repeal the state’s death penalty.
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In the winter of 2021, two death row prisoners raised claims in habeas corpus proceedings that their trial attorneys were constitutionally ineffective. But the nation’s highest court split in a decision last month ruling that they could not introduce evidence outside of the state court record due to restrictions imposed by a federal law.
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The government’s decision to pursue capital punishment came several months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order stating the government should pursue the death penalty in every federal case involving the murder of a law enforcement officer.
Documents released Monday to the Indiana Capital Chronicle include a previously undisclosed Department of Correction drug inventory log that tracks purchases, use and disposal of pentobarbital over the past two years.
Firing squad and nitrogen hypoxia would be allowed alongside lethal injection to carry out Indiana’s death penalty under a bill that passed 8-5 out of the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee.
The bill advanced Wednesday by the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee would tighten protections for defendants with intellectual disabilities in capital punishment cases.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the appeal of a Black death row inmate from Mississippi whose case was handled by a prosecutor with a history of dismissing Black jurors for discriminatory reasons.
After three executions in less than a year — ending a nearly 15-year pause in Indiana’s use of capital punishment — it’s not clear when the state will carry out another.
Death row inmate Roy Lee Ward was executed by lethal injection early Friday morning at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
Condemned man Roy Lee Ward has withdrawn the final two federal lawsuits that sought to delay his execution, effectively guaranteeing that his death sentence will be carried out before sunrise Friday at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
Unless a court intervenes, Roy Lee Ward will be the third person executed since Indiana resumed capital punishment in December 2024, after more than a decade-long pause.
The board’s decision is advisory. State law gives the governor sole authority to decide whether to accept the recommendation and commute Ward’s sentence, grant a reprieve or allow the execution to proceed.
Just weeks before Roy Lee Ward’s scheduled execution, the Indiana Parole Board heard conflicting portrayals Monday of the man condemned for the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne.
Death row inmate Roy Lee Ward declined to meet one-on-one with the Indiana Parole Board, saying he wanted to spare the family of his victim from traveling to the state prison in Michigan City for the interview.
Gov. Mike Braun called pentobarbital “a very difficult drug to get,” but said the state expects to have more by October’s scheduled execution.
The court rejected arguments that the state’s lethal injection process poses a constitutional risk and said Ward had not met the legal burden to reopen his case.
Attorneys for death row inmate Roy Lee Ward and the Indiana Attorney General’s Office are sparring before the state’s highest court over whether Ward’s tentative execution date should stand.
Questions remain about whether the state will have access to the execution drugs needed for an Oct. 10 execution date.
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office requested an execution date on Friday for death row inmate Roy Lee Ward, the Spencer County man convicted in 2007 for the rape and murder of 15‑year‑old Stacy Payne.
Four doses of execution drugs were purchased — some which were used while others expired.
Indiana has exhausted its supply of lethal injection drugs after carrying out two executions in the past six months — and Gov. Mike Braun said Tuesday he doesn’t plan to buy more, at least for now.
Questions remain about Benjamin Ritchie’s early Tuesday execution after his attorneys reported seeing sudden, unexpected movement during the lethal injection process.