Will there be more executions in Indiana in 2025?

Last month, Indiana ended its 15-year pause on the execution of inmates sentenced to death.

The end came with the lethal injection of Joseph Corcoran, who had been on death row since 1999.

Legal observers and capital punishment opponents think there’s a chance there could be more executions in 2025 as other inmates exhaust their appeals. Seven other men are on Indiana’s death row.

However, legislation already has been filed in the Indiana General Assembly that would repeal the state’s death penalty.

“We’re certainly hopeful there won’t be (more),” said Chris Daley, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana, which opposes the death penalty.

The ACLU feels the state’s death penalty amounts to the prohibited use of cruel and unusual punishment, Daley said.

There have been no recent surveys gauging public support for either maintaining or repealing the death penalty in Indiana.

Without concrete statistics or statewide polls for data, Daley said he felt like, anecdotally, there were more people who had previously supported the death penalty who were questioning it now.

“We view that as a positive sign,” Daley said.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita already has asked the Indiana Supreme Court to set an execution date for Benjamin Ritchie, who is on death row for the fatal 2000 shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer William Toney.

“Most Hoosiers and I expect justice without delay, especially when someone murders a police officer, one of the many, many brave men and women we thank and respect daily,” Rokita said at the time. “This convicted cop killer has been on death row far too long — 22 years — and it’s past time for him to pay his debt to society.”

Outgoing Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office also weighed on Ritchie’s potential execution, noting that Ritchie had been on death row since October 2002 and exhausted all his appeals.

“This individual has been on death row since October of 2002 and exhausted all his appeals since his murder of Beech Grove Officer, William Toney, 32, on September 29, 2000,” the governor’s office said in written remarks. “Gov. Holcomb will be fulfilling his gubernatorial duty by following the law and carrying out justice according to the conviction and sentencing of this case by the court.”

Holcomb made his views about the death penalty clear in remarks to the Indiana Capital Chronicle in June 2024, saying, “I personally and professionally subscribe to this means and think it’s appropriate in these rare cases of heinous crimes. When such evil is on display, I personally believe in this. I respect others that don’t,” he added. “The will of the people will be carried out, and it’s the law of our land. And so, set aside my personal convictions, it’s incumbent upon me to do my job — and all the others along the process. And so, yes, it is important if you have laws on the books, and sentences have been handed down, that it’d be completed. And it will.”

Ritchie’s fate, however, likely rests in the hands of incoming Gov. Mike Braun, who has said he trusts jurors and judges to “understand the gravity of the (death penalty) and hand it down when appropriate.”

Rokita sought execution dates for both Ritchie and Corcoran after state officials ended their years-long struggle to secure a lethal drug needed for executions and obtained pentobarbital for that purpose.

Ritchie’s attorneys have asked the supreme court to allow him more time to

develop the facts and legal arguments to show that death is an inappropriate penalty in this case.

Ritchie’s court filing alleged evidence that behaviors associated with Ritchie’s brain damage due to fetal alcohol syndrome and lead poisoning as a child were not sufficiently explored.

David Frank, president of the Indiana Abolition Coalition, a group opposed to the death penalty, said Corcoran’s execution showed several deficiencies in the state’s execution process.

Frank pointed to the execution being held in near secrecy and Corcoran being put to death over the objections of multiple mental health professionals with concerns about his mental state.

Corcoran’s attorneys had argued in court filings that Corcoran’s “paranoid schizophrenia completely removes him from reality. He cannot distinguish between reality and his delusions and hallucinations — his delusions are his reality.”

“Obviously, we were very saddened by the unnecessary execution of Joseph Corcoran,” Frank said.

Proposed would repeal death penalty in Indiana

Proposed legislation would repeal the state’s death penalty.

Rep. Robert Morris, R-Fort Wayne, authored House Bill 1030, which specifies that if a person was sentenced to death and is awaiting execution of the death sentence, the person’s death sentence is commuted to a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

It also provides that when a defendant is charged with a murder for which the state seeks a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, the defendant may file a petition alleging that the defendant is an individual with an intellectual disability.

The bill has been sent to the House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code, which is chaired by Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville.

Graham Loughead, McNamara’s press secretary, said the committee chair had not yet determined which bills will be heard during this legislative session.

Braun, the incoming governor, has not been commenting yet on specific bills for this year’s legislative session, but spokesman Brad Rateike pointed to Braun’s previous statements on the death penalty as a guide.

In one statement, Braun said, “I would consider input from federal authorities and other states in addition to health experts, but when used, the death penalty should be swift and painless.”

Braun also said at a GOP gubernatorial debate in April : “All life is precious, and the death sentence is a very serious penalty reserved for those guilty of the most heinous of crimes. I trust Hoosier jurors and judges to understand the gravity of the sentence and hand it down when appropriate.”

Daley sees Braun’s stance on the death penalty as “conflicted” and expressed hope he would get involved in the debate.

Daley said the ACLU recognizes HB 1030 is a “conversation starter.” He added that he believes there will be a companion bill coming from the Indiana Senate. But he noted that “it’s unclear if committee chairs will want to hear these bills.”

Victoria Casanova, an attorney and manager of Casanova Legal Services LLC, said she’s represented clients facing the death penalty in trial court, but not on the state level.

She said she was very disappointed, but not surprised that Holcomb did not intervene in Corcoran’s execution.

“I will be pleasantly surprised if this House bill passes. It would be a great thing for our state,” Casanova said.

Changing attitudes?

Indiana is one of 27 states that have the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

But there is evidence nationally that Americans’attitudes toward the death penalty are changing. A Gallup poll in late 2023 found that 53% of Americans favor the death penalty for a person convicted of murder compared to more than 70% in the 1990s.

A few states recently have abolished the death penalty – Colorado in 2020 and New Hampshire in 2019.

With Indiana pausing executions for years prior to Corcoran’s execution in December, there had also been pause on discussion of the death penalty in the state, Frank said.

But with Corcoran’s death and religious groups lining up to oppose it, there appears to be some room now to reopen the debate. Whether that will result in any legislation moving through the Legislature this year, only time will tell.•