Indiana hides executions. Firing squads would be more honest

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21-05-2025

Brad Sigmon had three options: die by firing squad, die by electrocution or die by a new lethal injection drug. He chose the firing squad. Mikal Mahdi made the same choice.
South Carolina executed Sigmon on March 7 and Mahdi on April 11. Three shots to the heart of Sigmon. Two shots … well, two shots missed Mahdi's heart. A third shot missed him altogether. I'll return to that. He died, nevertheless.
Benjamin Ritchie had no such choice. Indiana executed Ritchie starting at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, declaring him dead at 12:46 a.m. The state used the lethal injection drug pentobarbital, first used in the December killing of Joseph Corcoran, which ended Indiana's 15-year pause in executions. That's the same drug Sigmon and Mahdi passed on in South Carolina, opting instead to take bullets to the chest (or wherever the executioners could put them, given their skills).
If you've been following Indiana's relaunch into state-sponsored killing, you can start to understand why a forced overdose of pentobarbital might not be a first choice for your last experience on earth. For as proud as Indiana is to be executing prisoners again, it doesn't seem so proud of its methodology, which has been kept as hidden as possible.
Indiana killed Ritchie under a veil of secrecy, with no media present. We know pentobarbital is a barbiturate commonly used for animal euthanasia. It has become a lethal injection drug of choice for governments after years of shortages due to pharmaceutical companies opting out of supplying methods of execution.
Executions involving pentobarbital have consistently lacked transparency, especially in Indiana. We don't know exactly how long the pentobarbital took to do its job Tuesday. We don't know if Ritchie suffered.
More from Opinion: Death penalty for Beech Grove cop killer Benjamin Ritchie? Science says no.
You might not care about that. Ritchie landed on death row because he shot Beech Grove police officer William Toney four times and killed him Sept. 29, 2000. He was found guilty of murder in 2002.
As polarizing as the death penalty is, American society finds it most acceptable in cases involving the murder of police officers. Even liberal Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears has repeatedly advocated for the death penalty in such cases.
Cards on the table, I oppose the death penalty in all cases. Indiana's approach is especially despicable. Our politicians want tough-guy credit for killing killers, while detaching themselves from the reality of their decisions. They shroud executions in darkness and sanitize the violence through the optics of medicine.
Following Ritchie's execution, six inmates remain on death row in Indiana. All signs suggest the state intends to proceed.
Indiana should go all in on the violence and permit firing squads — a more honest method of execution that also happens to be preferable to at least some inmates. If state Attorney General Todd Rokita is so enthusiastic about killing inmates, he can even pull one of the triggers and put it in a campaign ad.
It's debatable whether firing squads could be considered more humane than veterinarian-inspired death. And, while much of the case against lethal injection is that it can be botched, there is no guarantee that firing squads are more efficient.
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In fact, Mahdi's execution in South Carolina was a botch by any standard. Under South Carolina's firing squad protocols, three executioners are supposed to fire one shot each to the heart of the inmate. In Mahdi's case, two shots damaged his liver and other organs and one missed altogether.
"Mr. Mahdi did experience excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds after he was shot," Dr. Jonathan Arden, a pathologist commissioned by Mahdi's lawyers, Arden wrote in an analysis of South Carolina's autopsy, per NPR.
As awful as that is, at least we know exactly what went wrong and how Mahdi died.
Did anything go wrong in Ritchie's execution? We'd likely never know. Indiana did not allow independent witnesses — and, even if it had, those present did not have enough access or medical knowledge to understand whether the execution went off as planned.
Indiana politicians want credit for killing bad guys. Inmates facing death want the quickest, most painless method of execution possible. Firing squads, as savage as they are, could better serve these cursed interests.
Contact James Briggs at 317-444-4732 or [e-mail]. Follow him on X and Bluesky at @JamesEBriggs.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Did Benjamin Ritchie's execution go wrong? We'd never know | Opinion