Bill to allow firing squads to carry out death sentences fails House vote

A bill that would have authorized a firing squad to carry out the death penalty in Indiana failed to pass out of the House this week. 

Democrats and Republicans joined together to oppose the legislation. 

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced bills allowing the death penalty to be carried out by firing squad, in part because of the difficulty of obtaining the drug the state currently uses - pentobarbital. It is also expensive and has a limited shelf life.

Some states have moved to allow death by firing squads, including South Carolina, but those executions haven’t been without problems. Last year, a man executed by firing squad may have suffered before dying after the shooters missed his heart. 

“Just because lethal injection has been problematic doesn't mean Indiana or any other state is going to perform flawlessly when it comes to things like firing squad,” said Robert Dunham, Director of the Death Penalty Policy Project. 

Dunham has been watching as the bill moved through the legislature and even came to testify against the Senate version of the measure.

“One of the questions you have to ask before Indiana talks about changing its method of carrying out executions is whether Indiana should be carrying on executions at all,” Dunham said. 

Lawmakers appear to be asking the same question. 

Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) said he opposes the death penalty altogether - not just the manner in which it is carried out. 

“Do we really think that the government and our criminal justice system is infallible?” Pierce asked. “That we can actually perform an execution and not risk killing an innocent person?”

Lawmakers' concerns with the death penalty took center stage throughout Wednesday's session. Another bill makes changes to evaluations of whether the defendant in a death penalty case has an intellectual disability. That bill passed shortly before the firing squad bill failed.

Speaking on the intellectual disability bill, Rep. Robert Morris (R-Fort Wayne), said he was happy with the work done by author Rep. Garrett Bascom (R-Lawrenceburg) on the issue. 

“I look forward to continued discussion with him to actually abolish the death penalty as a whole,” Morris said. 

Lawmakers had added provisions to the bill around media representation at executions and a requirement that a licensed psychologist would need to be in attendance to provide mental health services for executioners with any issues related to their participation. 

Representative Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) seemed frustrated that many lawmakers rose to voice their opposition, not just to the bill, but to the death penalty altogether. 

“I respect and truly appreciate everyone’s passion and emotion on this issue. But the actual issue is not the death penalty,” he said. “That’s been decided, over 200 years ago.”

The bill failed by not having a constitutional majority, which means it could come up for a vote again before Monday’s deadline. 

 A Senate version of the bill is effectively dead. 

WFIU Reporter George Hale contributed to this report. 

Contact Government and Health Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org