INDIANAPOLIS — A bill to permit the use of fire squads to carry out the death penalty is now before lawmakers.
Republican Senator Mike Young of Indianapolis authored the bill, which would be an alternative to the use of lethal injection, a method that resumed last year in Indiana.
Senator Young argues this would be a cost-effective method of carrying out the sentence rather than the lethal injection, which he says costs up to $300,000 a dose.
The firing squad would consist of five people who are officers of the Indiana Department of Correction — four officers would have live ammunition, and the fifth would have a blank.
The bill has been assigned to the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee for consideration.
