By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle
A bill to add the firing squad as an execution method in Indiana failed in the House on Wednesday, falling three votes short of the required constitutional majority.
The legislation could still be brought back for another vote before Monday’s legislative deadline, however.
Bipartisan opposition to House Bill 1119 doomed the measure with a 48-47 tally. In the 100-member House, a bill must earn at least 51 votes to advance or be defeated.
Nineteen Republicans and 28 Democrats voted against the bill, which would allow the Indiana Department of Correction to choose between lethal injection and a firing squad when carrying out death sentences.
The unsuccessful vote came a day after lawmakers removed nitrogen hypoxia as an execution option. Additional amendments adopted Tuesday added mental health screening requirements for members of the execution team and revised language governing media witnesses to executions.
Bill author Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, framed the proposal as a continuation of Indiana’s legal death penalty history.
“I understand this is a sensitive topic, and I respect and truly appreciate everybody’s passion and emotion on this issue, but the actual issue is not the death penalty — that’s been decided over 200 years ago,” Lucas said. “And since then, this issue right now is simply amending existing Indiana law to include another method that we have done for the past 200 years, by evolving (execution) methods.
Lucas traced the state’s history from hanging and electrocution to lethal injection, arguing that the firing squad is a response to modern challenges.
“The drugs that we are using to carry out lethal injection are becoming harder and harder to come by,” he added, referring to the high cost of pentobarbital used in Indiana’s execution process.
Firing squads have never been legal in Indiana.
Opponents from both sides of the aisle countered that the bill raises moral and practical concerns and risks accelerating executions without fully addressing the broader debate around capital punishment.
Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, emphasized that the measure, in its latest form, no longer hinged on drug availability.
“The bill was amended to essentially now say that it doesn’t matter if it’s difficult to get the drugs that would allow a humane execution,” Pierce said. “And now we’re just going to let the Department of Corrections decide whether they want to use the lethal injection or firing squad.”
“I would hope that our society has advanced a bit since our state was founded, and would find a firing squad to be a barbaric way to perform an execution,” he continued. “At the end of the day, we are killing a person, we are taking a human life in the name of the state, in the name of the people of Indiana. And I think that we should be very careful, and do that as humanely as possible, and we shouldn’t be in a big hurry to do it.”
Rep. Bob Morris, R-Fort Wayne, additionally raised concerns about wrongful convictions and the mechanics of a firing squad.
“You can’t tell me with 100% certainty that the person committed the crime,” Morris said in passionate floor remarks. “One thing is for certain — you will never bring that life back when it is gone.”
And Rep. Becky Cash, R-Zionsville, noted that since 1973 more than 2,000 people have been exonerated from death row nationally.
Democrats also questioned whether the state was “moving backwards.”
“The death penalty — it simply has to go,” said Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis. “All this fuss is about our embarrassment with this heinous way of ending a life — a life of a person who, by definition, is not deserving of much of anything except the one thing the good Lord gave them, which is the life. It’s not for us to take it away. It’s not for us to fuss about how we take it away.”
“It’s not for us to kid ourselves that the only reason we’re here is because that chemical costs too much or doesn’t work right,” he concluded. “We should vote this bill down and get onto the real topic, which is to end this immoral procedure of killing another human being.”
Meanwhile, a Senate proposal authorizing firing squads effectively died after committee leaders declined to hold a vote to advance the measure to the full chamber.
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The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to giving Hoosiers a comprehensive look inside state government, policy and elections. The site combines daily coverage with in-depth scrutiny, political awareness and insightful commentary.
