Records Request Reveals Indiana Department of Corrections Spent $900,000 for Lethal Injection Drugs

According to pub­lic records released to the Indiana Capital Chronicle, the Indiana Department of Corrections (IDOC) spent $900,000 on the drugs need­ed to car­ry out the lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran in December 2024. The new­ly released record is so high­ly redact­ed that just one line of text appears: ​“IDOC shall pay the Contractor the sum of nine hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars ($900,000).” The doc­u­ment does not show how much pen­to­bar­bi­tal was pur­chased, when it was pur­chased, or from whom it was pur­chased. The record was released only after the Capital Chronicle filed a law­suit against IDOC to learn how much tax­pay­ers paid for Mr. Corcoran’s execution. 

Former Governor Eric Holcomb and IDOC broad­ly applied state law to shield infor­ma­tion about how the state acquired the nec­es­sary pen­to­bar­bi­tal. Indiana’s shield law specif­i­cal­ly pre­vents IDOC from releas­ing the name, address, and tax iden­ti­fi­er of the com­pa­ny con­tract­ed to sup­ply exe­cu­tion drugs, but cost is not shield­ed. However, in February 2025, Governor Mike Braun’s team said the gov­er­nor has ​“direct­ed his legal team to eval­u­ate how to pro­vide the great­est lev­el of trans­paren­cy under cur­rent law in hopes of resolv­ing the cur­rent law­suit.” The Capital Chronicle remains in ongo­ing nego­ti­a­tions with IDOC regard­ing the release of addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion. ​“Revealing the amount paid for pen­to­bar­bi­tal is only the first step toward trans­paren­cy in this case,” said Kris Cundiff, the Indiana Local Legal Initiative attor­ney for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The Capital Chronicle ini­tial­ly filed pub­lic records requests in June 2024, days after for­mer Gov. Holcomb and Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that the state had acquired a drug suit­able to resume exe­cu­tions in Indiana. Months lat­er, IDOC denied the Chronicle’s request, rely­ing on the shield law exemp­tions to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act. The Chronicle then filed a com­plaint with the Indiana Public Access Counselor, but IDOC argued that if it were to dis­close those cost of the lethal injec­tion drugs it might reveal iden­ti­ties of those involved in the exe­cu­tion process. Ultimately, in December 2024, the Public Access Counselor did not reach a defin­i­tive deci­sion about whether the records show­ing the cost could be dis­closed under state law.

In January 2024, the Capital Chronicle filed a law­suit which claimed IDOC breached state pub­lic records law through unrea­son­able delays and unlaw­ful with­hold­ing of pub­licly dis­clos­able infor­ma­tion. Filed in Marion Superior Court, the legal action chal­lenged the government’s asser­tion that reveal­ing drug cost records would expose the iden­ti­ties of those who car­ry out exe­cu­tions in Indiana. Mr. Cundiff also said, ​“Additional con­text is vital to under­stand­ing the true cost of the drug…Our client intends to con­tin­ue to seek the infor­ma­tion to which the law entitles them.”

Other states have also spent large sums to acquire lethal injec­tion drugs. According to records request­ed by The Tennessean, between 2017 and 2025, the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) spent near­ly $600,000 of tax­pay­er funds obtain­ing drugs for lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Specific infor­ma­tion about the drugs’ sources and ori­gins remain unknown because of the state’s secre­cy pro­vi­sions, much like Indiana’s pro­vi­sions. A 2021 inves­ti­ga­tion from The Guardian revealed that in 2020, the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation, & Reentry, (ADCRR) spent $1.5 mil­lion on 1,000 vials of pen­to­bar­bi­tal all shipped in ​“unmarked jars and box­es.” In 2015, Arizona spent $27,000 to pro­cure 1,000 vials of sodi­um thiopen­tal to use in exe­cu­tions. The drugs were seized by the US Customs and Border Protection in Phoenix after the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned ADCRR that the pur­chase was illegal.