Indiana Senate bill would allow firing squad for death penalty

A bill allowing for firing squad executions for death penalty inmates was filed in the Indiana legislature for the 2026 session.

Senate Bill 11, filed by State Sen. Michael Young, would allow for firing squad executions if medications for lethal injection can’t be obtained or the inmate chooses death by firing squad at least 30 days before the scheduled execution date.

The firing squad would be made up of five Department of Correction officers selected by the warden. The identity of firing squad members would be kept confidential and not subject to discovery in civil or criminal lawsuits, according to the bill.

At the time of execution, four members will have guns with live ammunition and one member will have a gun with blank ammunition. The guns would be loaded without the members knowing who has what kind of ammunition, according to the bill.

Young, R-Indianapolis, said in a statement that he filed the bill because it can cost up to $300,000 per dose of pentobarbital, which is used to conduct executions by lethal injection, and “often expire before they can be used.”

“Securing the drugs to conduct lethal injections is costly and time consuming,” Young said.

Gov. Mike Braun disclosed in June that Indiana 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. The cost has been between $275,000 and $300,000 per dose, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Braun stopped short of endorsing any specific execution methods but pointed to South Carolina, which reinstated the firing squad as an option after years of delays due to its inability to obtain legal injection drugs, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

The Republican governor has repeatedly suggested that the high cost and short shelf life of the drug should prompt new discussions on how the state approaches capital punishment moving forward. He called on lawmakers to debate the future of capital punishment in Indiana in the 2026 session, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

In 2024, Indiana resumed executions after a nearly 15-year pause because pharmaceutical companies were hesitant to sell the drugs for executions amid growing public scrutiny, said Indiana University Maurer School of Law professor Jody Madeira.

“Once people find out the pharmacy that’s providing the drugs, bad press can ensue, which is why Indiana kept their provider secret last time. It’s just a very hard thing for states to get drugs now, so that’s why they’ve gone to single drug protocols,” Madeira said.

Three Indiana death row inmates — Joseph Corcoran, Benjamin Ritchie, and Roy Lee Ward — have been executed in the last year.

When she heard about Senate Bill 11, Madeira said she found it to be “very odd,” because Indiana has completed executions using lethal injection, so it’s hard to justify utilizing a “controversial” method like a firing squad.

The firing squad death penalty method is constitutional, but it’s likely to remain controversial, Madeira said.

Currently, five states allow for firing squad executions: Utah, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Idaho and South Carolina, Madeira said. Idaho’s firing squad law goes into effect in 2026, she said.

States approach the firing squad execution in two ways: Listing a preference in order of execution method, like lethal injection first and firing squad method last, like in Oklahoma, or allowing inmates to choose an execution method, which includes firing squad, like in South Carolina, Madeira said.

In March, Brad Sigmon, a South Carolina man who killed his ex-girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat, was executed by firing squad. He was the first U.S. prisoner in 15 years to die by firing squad, which Sigmon chose over lethal injection.

Since then, South Carolina executed two more inmates — Mikal Mahdi and Stephen Bryant — by firing squad. In all three executions, the men had bullseye targets placed over their hearts, and three jail employees fired the shots.

Sigmon’s lawyers said he chose the firing squad because the electric chair would “cook him alive,” and he feared that a lethal injection of pentobarbital into his veins would send a rush of fluid and blood into his lungs and drown him.

Sigmon made several heavy breaths during the two minutes that elapsed from when the hood was placed over his head to the shots being fired, according to The Associated Press. His arms briefly tensed when he was shot, and the target was blasted off his chest.

He appeared to give another breath or two with a red stain on his chest, and small amounts of tissue could be seen from the wound during those breaths.

The argument for using firing squads includes the high cost of lethal injection drugs and if any other execution method is found unconstitutional then firing squad is an option, Madeira said.

“There’s these ‘full proof methods,’ and states are bargaining that execution by firing squad is one of those full proof methods because it’s not a drug protocol,” Madeira said.

Firing squads have been pitched as a more humane option, Madeira said, because it doesn’t require mixing drugs, complications of finding a vein with an IV,  among other reasons, which Madeira said she disagrees with.

If Indiana were to utilize the firing squad method, it would likely unincentivize the state from purchasing the lethal injection drugs, Madeira said.

“It provides a work-around,” Madeira said. “People can bring challenges to firing squad as well, but the challenges to firing squad are a lot easier to resolve, I think, than perhaps the challenges to some of the lethal injection protocols.”

But, Madeira said she doesn’t believe Senate Bill 11 will advance because Sen. Young’s bills haven’t advanced recently. Further, Madeira said the 2026 session is a short session and “people have other business on their plate.”

The Associated Press contributed 

akukulka@post-trib.com