Braun says execution will move forward, despite botched lethal injection in Tennessee
Governor Mike Braun said he expects Indiana to follow through on plans to execute a death row prisoner next month despite concerns over the lethal injection drug.
Indiana uses the same drug Tennessee administered last month in a botched execution attempt that grabbed national headlines.
Braun says he’s aware of what happened in Tennessee on September 30 when two doses of pentobarbital failed to kill death row inmate Christa Pike.
“It does give you pause,” Braun said. “In terms of recently, that would be the first time there was something as graphic as that.”
Pike regained consciousness days later in a Nashville hospital. “That does make you kinda think about the process in general. And of course, there have been a lot (of people who) bring that up as a broader discussion on capital punishment in general,” Braun said.
But Braun still expects Indiana’s planned execution of Weisheit to move forward as long as state officials can obtain a supply of the lethal injection drug, pentobarbital.
“At this point, it’s scheduled,” he said. “Unless something pops up out of the ordinary in terms of access to it and all of that, I think it’ll probably be in motion to go forward.”
Weisheit’s death sentence — for the murders of two children in 2010 in Evansville — is set to be carried out November 5 at the Indiana State Prison.
Read more: Indiana parole board schedules clemency hearings ahead of Weisheit execution
Braun also said he’ll consider new information provided by Weisheit but still doesn’t want to delay plans to execute him next month.
Weisheit’s attorneys are asking the state supreme court to delay the execution to allow time for new brain scans. They say the scans could reveal evidence of injury and might help explain why he murdered two children in 2010 in Evansville.
“We’re not going to dismiss it,” Braun said. “We’re not going to try to slow it down. We’d want it so we could take it under consideration. And then the legal team that represents the state would look at that and advise me accordingly.”
The Indiana parole board is set to hear from Weisheit’s attorneys Friday. The board will then hear public testimony Monday. After the hearings, the board will decide whether to advise Braun to grant clemency or let the execution proceed as planned.
