Indiana is out of Lethal Injections

syringe

          What would be Indiana’s first execution in eight years can’t be scheduled until the state gets a fresh supply of lethal injection drugs.

          Joseph Corcoran ran out of appeals 15 months ago for the shotgun murders of his brother and three other people in 1997. But Attorney General Curtis Hill’s office, which must formally request an execution date before a death sentence is carried out, says the state doesn’t have the needed chemicals.

          Indiana’s last execution was eight years ago. Since then, several companies have said they’ll no longer sell drugs for use in executions. Legislators tucked a provision into this year’s budget bill allowing the state to buy the chemicals without disclosing the supplier’s identity, but the state still hasn’t found any.

          Indiana is one of 17 states where lethal injection is the only legally approved method.

          Senate Corrections and Criminal Code Chairman Mike Young says the legislature could authorize another method of execution if need be…

          A second roadblock to executions sprang up in June, when the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in another Death Row inmate’s case that a new three-drug protocol adopted in 2014 can’t be used because the department didn’t conduct public hearings first. The Indiana Supreme Court is considering that case.