Next month, Indiana plans to execute Jeffrey Weisheit for the 2010 murders of 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb Lynch, who died in a fire at their Evansville home.
His attorneys want to delay the date so doctors can perform and examine brain scans for evidence of brain injuries they say were not adequately developed or presented during his trial and appeals.
Read more: Indiana death row inmate seeks execution delay
If Governor Mike Braun ultimately denies clemency in the case, Weisheit will die from a lethal injection of the drug pentobarbital.
It’s the same drug used in a failed execution in Tennessee last month of Christa Pike that left her unconscious in a hospital for days. She has since been returned to the prison and will likely face another execution attempt next year.
It again raised questions of using pentobarbital as a lethal injection drug and calls for using other methods for executions have increased. Indiana state representative Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) said he plans to introduce legislation making a firing squad Indiana’s primary method of execution.
At the federal level, Pentagon officials announced last month that it planned to live stream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, on Dec. 3. Whether the execution is televised or not remains to be seen, as the government has faced pushback.
It would be the first military execution in 65 years, but the 14th federal execution since President Trump’s first term. Those all took place in a six-month stretch at the Federal penitentiary in Terre Haute just before the end of Trump’s first term in January of 2021.
Listen to our podcast: Rush to Kill
On this week’s Noon Edition, we’ll talk about the efficacy of lethal injection, alternative execution methods, impending executions at the state and federal levels, and Americans’ attitudes about the death penalty.
Join us on the air by calling 812-855-0812 or toll-free at 1-877-285-9348. You can also send questions for the show to news@indianapublicmedia.org.
You can also record your questions and send them in through email.
Guests
Zachary Cormier, Associate Professor of Law, IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Marla Sandys, Associate Professor, IU Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
