Group calls for review of Indiana’s death penalty procedures

INDIANAPOLIS — As Indiana prepares for its second execution in the last six months, a bipartisan group of twelve lawmakers has submitted a letter to the Legislative Council requesting a review of the state’s capital punishment policies and practices.

“I do have hope,” David Frank with the Indiana Abolition Coalition said. ”It’s not about what the criminal does, it’s about what we do as a society.”

The lawmakers are specifically requesting that the council assign the topic to a summer study committee later this year. Their letter reads in part:

“…The State of Indiana resumed executions in December 2024 after a 15-year hiatus, raising serious legal, moral, and administrative questions that demand further examination…”

“We can’t bring a life back,” State Rep. Bob Morris (R-Fort Wayne), who penned the letter, said. “I’m a pro-life legislator from conception until the final breath, and the reality is we have state employees that are going to be taking a human life, and that’s what really bothers me.”

According to Morris, he and his colleagues are concerned about the risk of wrongful convictions, the long-term health effects on executioners, and the secrecy surrounding how the state carries out the death penalty.

“I’m not sure why we carry out the execution in a 200 square foot room—why media are not invited to witness this,” Morris said. “If we’re really trying to teach a lesson, why are we not carrying these executions out in an 80,000 square foot arena?”

“Can government be trusted with the power to kill?” Abraham Bonowitz with Death Penalty Action posited during an interview on Thursday.

The group, which seeks to abolish capital punishment nationwide, said law enforcement officers serving in death penalty states are more likely to be killed in the line of duty.

“When you study it, you find out that it doesn’t do what we think it does,” Bonowitz said. “The same people that don’t trust government to fill potholes or tax us fairly or come up with a decent virus vaccine…they’re willing to give government the power to kill and to trust them to get it right every time?”

Both Bonowitz and Morris said they also question the safety and cost of pentobarbital: the drug Indiana uses to execute death row inmates.

“I’ve really tried to stay away from the money aspect, but the money aspect is it would be a lot less expensive,” Morris said. “The complications that other states have had in administering it: that’s one of my biggest concerns.”

“What if we put that money into catching people like Benjamin Ritchie before they fall through the cracks?” Bonowitz asked. “If we can see somebody on a path towards violent crime and towards murder and intervene in their life and put them on a different path, why wouldn’t we want to do that?”

This comes as Gov. Mike Braun announced he will not grant Benjamin Ritchie’s request for clemency. Ritchie was sentenced to death for the September 2000 murder of Beech Grove Police Officer William Toney.

“We’re very disappointed that he stated that he’s denying the clemency petition,” Frank said. “Until, you know, the last moment, the governor still has the power to act and intervene.”

“I hope that the Legislative Council considers this topic, and that we can move forward as a state and to ensure that these prisoners are housed in a humane manner and treated with respect,” Morris said.

Death Penalty Action said it plans on submitting a petition with at least 2,500 signatures to Gov. Braun’s office asking him to reconsider his decision not to grant Ritchie clemency. Ritchie is scheduled to be executed on May 20.