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.

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After an attempt to add firing squads to Indiana law stalled in the Senate, a House panel on Wednesday passed a bill expanding the state’s execution methods.

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.

House Bill 1119 was amended and now moves to the full chamber. Under the measure, it would be up to the Indiana Department of Correction to choose the manner of execution and state employees could not be forced to participate.

The vote was party line with Republicans in support except for Rep. Jennifer Meltzer, who joined Democrats in opposition.

“It provides options which are much needed in today’s environment,” said Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, the author of the bill. “Five states currently use both of these methods. Alabama has used nitrogen hypoxia for almost a decade. These methods have passed court muster in other states and they have been validated. That is the purpose of what I want to do with existing Indiana law is to bring it up to speed.”

Nitrogen hypoxia deprives inmates of oxygen using nitrogen gas. Alabama adopted the method in 2018 and used it for the first time in 2024. Five states — Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma — autho­rize exe­cu­tion by nitro­gen hypox­ia and only Alabama and Louisiana have used it.

Indiana had a 10-year gap in executing prisoners due to the state’s inability to acquire the lethal injection drugs needed. In 2024, the state switched to a single drug — pentobarbital — and has since executed three men. But the drugs are expensive, as much as $300,000 a dose, and several doses have expired unused.

No one testified in support of the legislation while the Indiana Catholic Conference, American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the Indian Public Defender Council opposed it.

Several speakers noted it is illegal in Indiana to euthanize an animal using gas but this bill would allow a human to essentially be suffocated.

Under the bill, an execution by firing squad would be carried out by a trio of individuals chosen by the warden. “Each individual shall fire a weapon containing live ammunition. No blanks may be used,” according to the bill.

It also eliminates the requirement that an execution occur “before sunrise.”

Zach Stock, with the public defender’s office, said the overwhelming costs of a death penalty case are defending and prosecuting it — not the execution itself. He said the issue of availability of drugs is overstated, noting that 47 executions were conducted nationally in 2025 — 80% using lethal injection.

And he pushed back against another argument for the bill — it helps the federal government.

The federal death chamber sits in Terre Haute. Federal law allows flexibility beyond lethal injection based on methods authorized by states.

“This bill appears to be in response to a request from the White House, rather than a demonstrated long-term need in Indiana,” Stock said. “Our position on this is that Indiana should not permanently alter its execution laws to accommodate a federal request that may change with the next administration. And the federal request is premised on the flimsiest of needs. There are only three people on federal death row … if they really want firing squads, they can move the chamber to Utah or South Carolina or somewhere that authorizes it already. The federal government has its own authority and its own responsibility to address its own execution protocols.”

Roarke LaCoursiere, speaking on behalf of Indiana’s Catholic bishops, said the imagery of a gas chamber and firing squad “highlights the brutality and savagery that the death penalty itself is and legalizing these new methods would only exacerbate the harm that having the death penalty in modern times already does to society.

“We believe Indiana should not pursue these execution methods, as they do not align with building a culture of life.”

A similar bill in the Senate stalled in committee after testimony. Corrections and Criminal Law Committee Chairman Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis, declined to take a vote on the legislation Tuesday, and doesn’t have another meeting scheduled. The bill dies for this year if it doesn’t gain committee approval by Monday.

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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.

You can read the original version of the story here.

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