INDIANA – Indiana is set to execute Roy Lee Ward on October 10th for the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne. Ward convinced Payne to allow him to enter her Spencer County home on July 11, 2001, by pretending to search for a lost dog. This scheduled execution, the third since December 2024, has reignited intense debate within the state regarding the cost and methods of capital punishment.
The Indiana Supreme Court recently set Ward’s execution date. To carry out the lethal injection, the state had to acquire more pentobarbital, reportedly at a cost of approximately $300,000 per dose.
This expenditure comes despite Governor Mike Braun’s previous statements about not intending to order more of the expensive drug. “Now that the court has set the execution date for Roy Lee Ward, I have directed the Department of Corrections to proceed with the necessary preparations required to carry out the execution,” Braun stated earlier this month.
The high cost and increasing difficulty in obtaining lethal injection drugs have prompted Republican Representative Jim Lucas to advocate for alternative execution methods. Lucas plans to introduce a bill in the next legislative session to permit firing squads and gallows, citing states like Idaho and South Carolina that have reintroduced such methods. “We shouldn’t be in a corner where we are solely dependent on one form of execution,” Lucas stated, emphasizing the need for alternatives.
However, Governor Braun has also urged lawmakers to engage in a broader discussion about the future of the death penalty in Indiana. Last year, a bill seeking to repeal the death penalty, put forth by a group of House Republicans, failed to receive a hearing.
Opponents, like Abraham Bonowitz, Executive Director of Death Penalty Action, argue against both alternative methods and the death penalty in general. Bonowitz points to the significant taxpayer costs associated with capital trials, noting a 2015 study that found the average price of a death penalty trial in Indiana was $385,458, nearly ten times higher than a case seeking a life sentence. He suggests that funds currently allocated to capital cases could be better utilized for victim services.
As October approaches, the discussion surrounding the financial implications, ethical considerations, and practicalities of capital punishment in Indiana is expected to intensify.
