The Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC) is speaking out against legislation that aims to introduce death by firing squad as a new method of capital punishment in the state.

With the 2026 legislative session now underway at the Indiana Statehouse, the ICC acted quickly to oppose Senate Bill 11, stating that the additional execution method it proposes “only underscores the brutality and savagery” of the death penalty itself.

“When we commit violence against another man, we not only hurt him, but the image of God in him, which affects the humanity in us all,” said Roarke LaCoursiere, associate director of the ICC, during a Jan. 6 hearing on the bill. “For this reason, killing someone, especially by firearm, should be resorted to in only the most necessary, life-threatening situations.”

After reiterating the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty in any form, LaCoursiere told lawmakers that the provisions of Senate Bill 11 raise unique concerns because of the trauma they would inflict not only on the person facing execution, but also on the individuals tasked with carrying them out.

The bill, authored by Sen. Mike Young (R-Indianapolis), proposes a five-member firing squad that would be composed of Indiana Department of Correction officers. Four of the officers would fire weapons using live ammunition, while one would fire a weapon containing a blank round, thus ensuring that no one would know who dealt the fatal shot.

“Even in instances where fatal force is used to save lives, people struggle with the long-lasting trauma that accompanies taking someone’s life,” LaCoursiere said during the hearing in the Senate Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law. “It goes against our God-given nature to do so. But under this bill, we would be asking five people to pull the trigger not for the purpose of saving life, but for the purpose of ending it.”

Currently, Indiana law allows only lethal injection as a means of carrying out the death penalty. In presenting Senate Bill 11, Young argued that the high cost of the drugs involved along with their limited shelf life are complicating factors driving the need for an additional execution method.

Senate Bill 11 would authorize the death penalty to be carried out by firing squad if execution by lethal injection could not occur due to unavailability of the required drug—or if the condemned person requests it instead of lethal injection.

But one opponent of Senate Bill 11 described the proposed legislation as “a solution in search of a problem.” Zach Stock, a representative of the Indiana Public Defender Council, told lawmakers that with only five people currently on death row in Indiana, obtaining the drugs to administer lethal injection should not be an issue.

“We don’t need large quantities of drugs now, and we’re unlikely to need them in the future,” Stock said.

He also addressed a major point of controversy in the proposed bill—that it is a response to the federal government’s desire to offer an additional execution method at Indiana’s federal death row site in Terre Haute. The U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute currently houses three inmates awaiting federal execution.

“Indiana doesn’t need to permanently alter its execution laws to accommodate a federal request that may change with the next administration,” said Stock, who serves as legislative counsel for the Indiana Public Defender Council.

Additionally, Stock emphasized that never in its history has Indiana authorized execution by firing squad. He noted that Indiana’s methods for carrying out the death penalty have evolved from hanging to electrocution to now lethal injection.

“This reflects a sustained judgment since the [state] Constitution was ratified in 1851 that methods of execution should become less violent—not more so,” he said.

Currently, only five states allow a firing squad as a legal execution method: Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Another opponent of Senate Bill 11 told lawmakers of an example in South Carolina highlighting that there is no failsafe means of execution—firing squad included.

Robert Dunham, executive director of the national Death Penalty Information Center, described how a team of firing squad sharpshooters “largely missed the target of the heart” in what he termed their “botched” attempt at executing an inmate.

He also described Indiana’s execution process as “shrouded in secrecy,” which he says makes it impossible to have a fully informed discussion about the process.

“The state shouldn’t be giving the Department of Correction more unchecked latitude in carrying out executions,” said Dunham, who also serves as a professor at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.

In keeping with the Catholic Church’s long-standing teaching on the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, the ICC is calling on the Catholic faithful in Indiana to oppose Senate Bill 11 and contact their lawmakers to express their concerns. The ICC has issued an action alert on the bill via its website, indianacc.org.

“Legalizing a firing squad method of execution would be a step in the wrong direction in Indiana’s efforts to build a culture of life,” LaCoursiere told lawmakers at the Jan. 6 hearing, which involved testimony only.

She and Alexander Mingus, executive director of the ICC, were working on proposed language to add conscience protection to the bill for those who wished to be exempt from the execution process on religious or moral grounds. The Senate committee was expected to vote on the proposed legislation during the week of Jan. 12.

A similar measure—House Bill 1119—proposes the addition of firing squad along with another execution method, death by nitrogen gas. At press time, that legislation had not been brought up for a hearing.

Anticipating that capital punishment would once again be at the forefront of issues before the Indiana General Assembly this year, the ICC hosted a panel discussion in Evansville last September, bringing together numerous people who have personally been affected by the death penalty.

The event was held less than two weeks before Indiana executed its third death-row inmate since the state resumed capital punishment in December 2024 following a 15-year hiatus.

In their first ICC podcast of 2026, Mingus and LaCoursiere discussed Senate Bill 11 as well as other anticipated legislation on issues including immigration, education and family policies and protecting children online.

This is a short, non-budget year session of the Indiana General Assembly—made even shorter by the legislature’s efforts in December to redraw congressional maps in the state of Indiana, which ultimately stalled.

“We expect to be done in late February, with a hyper-focus on a few key issues making their way through the Statehouse,” Mingus said.

As it has throughout its nearly 60-year history, the ICC will serve as the official public policy voice for the Catholic Church in Indiana at the General Assembly and beyond.

“In everything we do, we will always advocate for the dignity of human life and the protection of the common good,” Mingus said. “And we ask all of the Catholic faithful throughout Indiana to join us in this mission.”

To follow priority legislation of the ICC, visit www.indianacc.org. This website includes access to ICAN, the Indiana Catholic Action Network, which offers the Church’s position on key issues. Those who sign up for ICAN receive alerts on legislation moving forward and ways to contact their elected legislators.
 

(Victoria Arthur, a member of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus [Little Flower] Parish in Indianapolis, is a correspondent for The Criterion.) †