Governor Says Indiana Will Not Purchase More Lethal Injection Drugs, Invites Debate over Death Penalty

According to Governor Mike Braun, Indiana has deplet­ed the sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal it uses in its lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Given that the last of the dos­es pur­chased in December 2024 expired and went unused, Gov. Braun does not intend to renew the state’s sup­ply. According to ear­li­er report­ing by the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) spent $900,000 on pen­to­bar­bi­tal in late 2024 in prepa­ra­tion for the exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran. Gov. Braun said this amount­ed to three dos­es of pen­to­bar­bi­tal at $300,000 each. In explain­ing his deci­sion not to make fur­ther pur­chas­es, the Governor cit­ed con­cerns over the high price tag and short shelf-life. ​“I think, $300,000 a pop that has a 90-day shelf life — I’m not going to be putting it on the shelf and then let­ting them expire,” Gov. Braun told reporters. 

Indiana exe­cut­ed two indi­vid­u­als for the first time since 2009 using the pur­chased pen­to­bar­bi­tal: Joseph Corcoran in December 2024 and Benjamin Ritchie in May 2025.

Gov. Braun, who is in his first term as gov­er­nor, indi­cat­ed that law­mak­ers should weigh in on whether the state should con­tin­ue to retain the death penal­ty. ​“There are leg­is­la­tors that won­der if it’s still rel­e­vant,” said Gov. Braun. He added that he is ​“going to lis­ten to them, the courts, and the broad­er dis­cus­sion in gen­er­al.” During the state’s 2025 leg­isla­tive ses­sion, Republican State Representative Bob Morris intro­duced HB 1030, which seeks to abol­ish the death penal­ty in Indiana and replace it with life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Indiana is one of at least twelve states where leg­is­la­tors sought to repeal or abol­ish the death penal­ty in the 2025 leg­isla­tive ses­sion. Rep. Morris told a local news sta­tion that one of his major con­cerns with cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is cor­rec­tions offi­cers must kill those they care for each day. ​“So, they care for these pris­on­ers, feed them, house them, and then in the end, they kill them…So, I just don’t think that’s the right way to do it.” Despite sup­port from across the aisle, the abo­li­tion bill did not receive a com­mit­tee hear­ing, and the mea­sure did not move for­ward. The bill was cospon­sored by three oth­er Republican State Representatives: Christopher Judy, Jake Teshka, and Mark Genda.

Rep. Morris also intro­duced an amend­ment to a sep­a­rate bill that would have required the Indiana State Police to test its sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal with­in 12 – 24 hours ahead of an exe­cu­tion to assure the drug’s effec­tive­ness. This pro­posed amend­ment did not move either. Rep. Morris told a local news out­let he intends to intro­duce the abo­li­tion bill again in the next leg­isla­tive ses­sion, which will start in January 2026.

Secrecy around the death penal­ty is an issue in Indiana as it is in many states. Indiana is one of a num­ber of active death penal­ty states which have passed laws to shield the iden­ti­ties of phar­ma­cists, phar­ma­cies, whole­sale drug dis­trib­u­tors, and out­sourcing facil­i­ties that pro­vide drugs to the IDC for use in exe­cu­tions by lethal injec­tion. Indiana is also an out­lier in its pol­i­cy deci­sion to com­plete­ly exclude the press from wit­ness­ing exe­cu­tions in the state. A recent sur­vey by the Death Penalty Information Center found many states sig­nif­i­cant­ly restrict whether and how mem­bers of the press may observe and doc­u­ment the execution process.