“Violent” Movements During Indiana Execution Raise Unanswered Questions

Benjamin Ritchie’s exe­cu­tion in Indiana on May 20, 2025, has raised new con­cerns about the use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal after defense coun­sel report­ed their client dis­played an unusu­al phys­i­cal reac­tion after being inject­ed with the drug. But because Indiana offi­cials bar media wit­ness­es from observ­ing exe­cu­tions, the pub­lic has no inde­pen­dent wit­ness reports on what transpired. 

Steve Schutte, an attor­ney for Mr. Ritchie, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that Mr. Ritchie made what appeared to be ​“vio­lent” move­ments, lift­ing his head and shoul­ders abrupt­ly from the gur­ney soon after it is believed the drugs began to flow. Two addi­tion­al wit­ness­es at Mr. Ritchie’s exe­cu­tion cor­rob­o­rat­ed Mr. Schutte’s account. But an Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) spokesper­son dis­put­ed these obser­va­tions, telling the Capital Chronicle that Mr. Schutte’s account ​“is not an accu­rate descrip­tion of the cir­cum­stances” and main­tain­ing that Mr. Ritchie’s ​“exe­cu­tion was com­plet­ed accord­ing to pro­to­col.” These con­flict­ing accounts under­score the val­ue of hav­ing media wit­ness­es avail­able to pro­vide inde­pen­dent accounts of exe­cu­tions. Indiana is one of only two states that pre­vent media wit­ness­es from observing executions.

Dr. Jonathan Groner, Emeritus Clinical Professor of surgery at Ohio State University College of Medicine told the Capital Chronicle that what Mr. Schutte and oth­er wit­ness­es described is ​“not what is sup­posed to hap­pen” when pen­to­bar­bi­tal is admin­is­tered. Dr. Groner said ​“clear­ly, this was botched,” adding that pen­to­bar­bi­tal ​“should be real­ly, real­ly effec­tive — real­ly fast. No one should move…It’s just lights out, go to sleep, no reac­tion, no cough­ing, no noth­ing. They just don’t move.” 

Ahead of Mr. Ritchie’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion, five news out­lets, includ­ing the Capital Chronicle, filed a law­suit seek­ing access to exe­cu­tions, includ­ing Mr. Ritchie’s. The suit argued that Indiana’s law dis­crim­i­nates against jour­nal­ists by allow­ing spir­i­tu­al advi­sors and fam­i­ly mem­bers to attend while bar­ring mem­bers of the press. Judge Matthew Brookman denied the news out­lets’ request, not­ing that ​“at bot­tom, Indiana law treats mem­bers of the press the same as mem­bers of the pub­lic at large” and should not be accord­ed ​“dif­fer­en­tial treatment.”

Reporters may now only wit­ness an exe­cu­tion if cho­sen to fill one of five spots allot­ted to the pris­on­er; last December, a media wit­ness report­ed on the exe­cu­tion of Joseph Corcoran after being includ­ed on Mr. Corcoran’s guest list.

A November 2024 sur­vey from the Death Penalty Information Center found that only Indiana and Wyoming pro­hib­it the pres­ence of media wit­ness­es dur­ing exe­cu­tions. Some states allow media access only at the dis­cre­tion of the depart­ments of cor­rec­tion, and gen­er­al­ly, states dif­fer on whether the depart­ments of cor­rec­tion select indi­vid­ual jour­nal­ists or des­ig­nate media out­let which are then per­mit­ted to select the jour­nal­ist who will attend.

Observers have not­ed that media can pro­vide an essen­tial check on gov­ern­ment pow­er, giv­en that exe­cu­tions are not pub­lic, and because many exe­cu­tion pro­to­cols and process­es are kept secret by law or prac­tice. Journalists can func­tion as cru­cial inter­me­di­aries for the pub­lic, mon­i­tor­ing how state offi­cials con­duct exe­cu­tions and spend tax­pay­er dol­lars. As Rhonda Cook, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter who has wit­nessed 28 exe­cu­tions, explains: ​“We’re the ones that are there as the eyes and ears of the pub­lic, and we’re there to ensure that the state does it cor­rect­ly.” The over­sight role of media wit­ness­es is espe­cial­ly impor­tant when offi­cial gov­ern­ment state­ments on exe­cu­tions con­flict with oth­er wit­ness obser­va­tions, or when there are com­pli­ca­tions dur­ing the execution. 

For exam­ple, when Kenneth Smith was exe­cut­ed by nitro­gen gas in January 2024: Alabama pub­licly assured the pub­lic and the courts that nitro­gen gas would cause ​“uncon­scious­ness in sec­onds,” yet wit­ness­es report­ed that Mr. Smith ​“shook and writhed” for at least four min­utes. Despite the con­tra­dic­tion between expec­ta­tions and obser­va­tions, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told the press that the process was ​“text­book.” Media wit­ness­es, how­ev­er, report­ed about the anom­alies. Lee Hedgepeth, a reporter who has wit­nessed sev­er­al exe­cu­tions, said that ​“this was the fifth exe­cu­tion that I’ve wit­nessed in Alabama, and I have nev­er seen such a violent reaction[.]” 

In December 2024, Indiana car­ried out its first exe­cu­tion in 15 years, admin­is­ter­ing a lethal injec­tion to Joseph Corcoran. This exe­cu­tion marked the state’s shift away from its pre­vi­ous­ly used three-drug pro­to­col to reliance only on pen­to­bar­bi­tal — a fast-act­ing bar­bi­tu­rate often used as a seda­tive in med­ical pro­ce­dures. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved pen­to­bar­bi­tal for use in exe­cu­tions or caus­ing human deaths, and the Department of Justice with­drew a sim­i­lar pro­to­col in the wan­ing days of the Biden Administration because of seri­ous con­cerns regard­ing its use.