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State & Federal

Indiana

History of the Death Penalty

The death penal­ty has been present in Indiana for much of the state’s his­to­ry. Death penal­ty laws were part of Indiana’s leg­is­la­tion and cul­ture even before Indiana was grant­ed state­hood in 1816. Hangings were fair­ly fre­quent in the 1800’s, and in some cas­es pub­lic hang­ings result­ed in vio­lent mobs that killed the inmate even before they were hung. This changed with the intro­duc­tion of the elec­tric chair, which became the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion in 1913. The death penal­ty is still used, but exe­cu­tions have been lim­it­ed in num­ber since rein­state­ment in 1978, with less than 25 executions.

Timeline

1816 — Indiana is grant­ed state­hood. Death penal­ty laws were apart of Indiana ter­ri­to­ry-cul­ture and leg­is­la­ture pri­or to statehood.

1913 — The elec­tric chair becomes the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion in Indiana. Previously, hang­ing was the pri­ma­ry method of execution.

1961 — Richard Kiefer is the last per­son exe­cut­ed pri­or to a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty in 1972.

1973 — The Indiana General Assembly enacts a new death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing statute to replace the leg­is­la­tion struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Furman v. Georgia.

1977 — The Indiana Supreme Court strikes down Indiana’s 1972 death penal­ty sen­tenc­ing scheme in response to the court’s deci­sion in Woodson v. North Carolina. Eight men on Indiana’s death row have their sen­tences set aside as a result.

1985 — William Vandiver’s elec­tro­cu­tion exe­cu­tion is botched. After the first admin­is­tra­tion of 2,300 Volts, Vandiver was still breath­ing, and Herbert Shaps, Vandiver’s attor­ney, observed smoke and the smell of burn­ing upon wit­ness­ing Vandiver’s execution.

1986 — At six­teen years old, Paula Cooper is the youngest per­son to be sen­tenced to death in Indiana.

1995 — Gregory Resnover is the last per­son to be put to death by elec­tro­cu­tion in Indiana.

1995 — The Indiana Legislature pass­es and the gov­er­nor signs a law mak­ing lethal injec­tion the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion in Indiana.

1996 — Tommie Smith’s exe­cu­tion is botched in Indiana’s first exe­cu­tion by lethal injec­tion. It took one hour and nine min­utes for Smith to be pro­nounced dead after the exe­cu­tion team strug­gled to find adequate veins.

2002 — Governor Frank O’Bannon signs SB 426, mak­ing Indiana the 16th state to for­bid the death penal­ty for those who were 18 years-of-age at the time of their crime.

2014 — Indiana offi­cials decide to switch to the drug Brevital in their lethal injec­tion process due to a short­age of sodium thiopental.

2017 — The Indiana Court of Appeals voids the state’s lethal-injec­tions pro­to­col, hold­ing that Indiana’s Department of Corrections had failed to com­ply with state rule­mak­ing pro­ce­dures when it adopt­ed a nev­er-before-used exe­cu­tion pro­to­col with­out pub­lic notice or comment.

2020 — The first fed­er­al exe­cu­tion in 17 years is car­ried out in Indiana. A 5 – 4 Supreme Court rul­ing cleared the way for the exe­cu­tion of Daniel Lewis Lee at the United States Penitentiary, Terre Haute.

2021 — The Indiana Supreme Court requires the Indiana Department of Corrections to release doc­u­ments regard­ing efforts to obtain lethal injec­tion drugs and orders the depart­ment to pay more than a half mil­lion dol­lars in attor­ney fees for its bad faith non-com­pli­ance with the state’s pub­lic records act.

2024 — After a 15-year hia­tus, Indiana announced plans to resume exe­cu­tions on December 18, 2024. Joseph Corcoran, the man sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed, is severe­ly men­tal­ly ill and waived his appeals.

Famous Cases

Debra Denise Brown, along with Alton Coleman, was con­vict­ed for rap­ing, rob­bing and mur­der­ing sev­er­al vic­tims through­out the sum­mer of 1984. Both Brown and Coleman were sen­tenced to death in Indiana and Ohio. Brown’s death sen­tence in Ohio was com­mut­ed to life with­out parole large­ly due to ques­tions raised about her intel­lec­tu­al func­tion­ing and men­tal abil­i­ty, as well as the depen­den­cy on Coleman to com­mit the crimes. The same con­cerns led to her Indiana death sen­tence being mod­i­fied to a 140-year sen­tence. Her part­ner, Coleman, was exe­cut­ed in 2002.

Notable Exonerations

In 1978, Larry Hicks was sen­tenced to death for the stab­bings of Norton Miller and Stephen Crosby at a neigh­bor’s par­ty. He was seen ear­li­er threat­en­ing the two indi­vid­u­als with a knife. The Playboy Foundation became inter­est­ed in Hicks’ claim of inno­cence and grant­ed Hicks mon­ey for a retri­al after he passed a lie detec­tor test. He was grant­ed a retri­al based on inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion at his first tri­al, and the con­vic­tion was over­turned once eye­wit­ness­es recant­ed their tes­ti­monies and Hicks pro­vid­ed an ali­bi. He was released from death row in 1980 and cleared of charges.

Notable Commutations/​Clemencies

Arthur Baird​’s sto­ry is an exam­ple of how men­tal ill­ness can impact death penal­ty cas­es. Baird stran­gled his wife, Nadine Baird, killing her and their unborn child in 1985. The next morn­ing he went on to stab his par­ents, Arthur and Kathryn Baird. The unusu­al cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing his case, includ­ing hold­ing his dead wife for hours in front of a tele­vi­sion and feed­ing his chick­ens and receiv­ing a hair­cut before killing his par­ents, raised ques­tions about Baird’s san­i­ty. Although the Board of Paroles denied his peti­tion for clemen­cy, Governor Mitch Daniels grant­ed Baird clemen­cy on August 9, 2009, the day before his scheduled execution.

Other Interesting Facts

Over time, Indiana has uti­lized three meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Until 1913, hang­ing was the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion for those sen­tenced to death. Electrocution was then used until 1995, when lethal injec­tion was first used. Lethal injec­tion is the cur­rent pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion in Indiana.

According to Indiana codes, the exe­cu­tion of a death row inmate must take place before sun­rise on the execution day.

On July 1, 2002, Indiana shift­ed away from sen­tenc­ing in death penal­ty cas­es with a judge towards sen­tenc­ing with a jury. The judge is only to get involved should the jury not unan­i­mous­ly agree on the death sentence.

Indianapolis sky­line. Public domain image.

Resources

  • American Bar Association Indiana Death Penalty Assessment
  • Department of Corrections
  • Prosecutors
  • Indiana Public Defender Council (death penalty links)
  • Indi­ana Abolition Coalition

Indiana Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Apr 08, 2025

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

Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

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…

Read More

News

Dec 17, 2024

Indiana’s First Execution in 15 Years Raises Serious Constitutional Concerns

If Joseph Corcoran had been sen­tenced to death just a few miles to the east, across the bor­der in Ohio instead of in Fort Wayne, Indiana, it’s like­ly that a court would have barred his exe­cu­tion. Ohio law pre­vents a per­son with a seri­ous men­tal ill­ness (SMI) at the time of their crime, defined as schiz­o­phre­nia, schizoaf­fec­tive dis­or­der, bipo­lar dis­or­der, or delu­sion­al dis­or­der, from being put to death. Mr. Corcoran, who has a long his­to­ry of paranoid…

Read More

News

Dec 06, 2024

Indiana Plans to Resume Executions after 15-Year Pause with a Severely Mentally Ill ​“Volunteer”

The state of Indiana is sched­uled to car­ry out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years on December 18, 2024, with the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran (pic­tured). Sentenced to death for the 1997 mur­ders of four peo­ple, includ­ing his broth­er, Mr. Corcoran has a long his­to­ry of seri­ous men­tal ill­ness. He has been diag­nosed with schiz­o­phre­nia, which includes symp­toms of hal­lu­ci­na­tions and delu­sions, and mul­ti­ple experts have tes­ti­fied that he is incom­pe­tent to face…

Read More

News

Jul 11, 2024

NPR Investigation Reveals Supplier of Texas Execution Drugs Has Multiple Drug Enforcement Agency Violations; Questions Remain Regarding Drug Acquisition in Other States

A July 10, 2024, National Public Radio (NPR) inves­ti­ga­tion has revealed that Rite Away, a small chain of phar­ma­cies locat­ed around San Antonio and Austin, Texas, com­pound­ed and pro­vid­ed pen­to­bar­bi­tal for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) between 2019 and late 2023 to car­ry out lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. During the same time peri­od, records at the Texas Board of Pharmacy and fed­er­al Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) indi­cate the phar­ma­cy was cited for…

Read More
Five vials of clear liquid, varying sizes. One is on its side with a syringe in it.

News

Dec 06, 2022

Midterm Elections: Moratorium Supporters, Reform Prosecutors Post Gains Despite Massive Campaign Efforts to Tie Reformers to Surge in Violent Crime

In a year that fea­tured mas­sive cam­paign adver­tis­ing attempt­ing to por­tray legal reform­ers as respon­si­ble for increas­es in vio­lent crime, can­di­dates com­mit­ted to crim­i­nal legal reform or who promised to con­tin­ue statewide mora­to­ria on exe­cu­tions post­ed key elec­tion wins in the 2022 midterm elec­tions. Defying a pre-elec­­tion nar­ra­tive fore­cast­ing a back­lash against pro­gres­sive pros­e­cu­tors and con­ven­tion­al wis­dom that fear of crime drives political…

Read More
View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 21
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 131
  • Current Death Row Population: 7
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 2
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 3
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): May 1, 1973
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1981
  • Location of Death Row/​Executions (Men): Indiana State Prison in Michigan City
  • Location of Death Row/​Executions (Women): Indiana Women’s Prison, Indianapolis
  • Capital: Indianapolis
  • Region: Midwest
  • Population: 6,785,528*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 5.6
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defen­dant get death for a felony in which s/​he was not respon­si­ble for the murder?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Lethal Injection
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor has author­i­ty to grant clemen­cy with non­bind­ing advice of Board of Pardons and Paroles
  • Governor: Mike Braun
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

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