Firing squad, Ten Commandments bills among proposals to falter at mid-session cutoff

by Casey Smith, Indiana Capital Chronicle
February 3, 2026

With a key mid-session deadline now passed, dozens of Indiana bills — including proposals on execution methods, displaying the Ten Commandments in schools, youth social media access and marijuana policy — have stalled or died after failing to reach passage votes in either chamber.

Monday marked the last day for House and Senate bills to receive third-reading votes and advance to the opposite chamber. Measures that missed that cutoff are no longer moving on their own, although lawmakers can still revive language by inserting it into other bills before the General Assembly adjourns later this month. 

Legislators are expected to wrap up the short session by the end of February.

At the start of session, lawmakers filed 680 non-vehicle bills between the House and Senate. Vehicle bills are procedural placeholders often used to advance other legislation or amendments later in session.

As of Tuesday, just 112 of the Senate’s 253 non-vehicle bills remained eligible to move forward, meaning 141 had stalled. Similarly in the House, 112 of 427 non-vehicle bills were still in play, leaving 315 measures on the chopping block.

No second chance vote for firing squad bill

Among the most closely watched proposals to fall short was House Bill 1119, which would have added the firing squad as an execution method in Indiana.

The bill, authored by Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, narrowly failed last week after it did not secure the 51 votes required for passage on the House floor, drawing only 48 “yes” votes. While the bill could have been placed back on the calendar for another vote before Monday’s deadline, it was not.

Lucas said difficulty and expense in obtaining lethal injection drugs motivated the proposal, which sought to create an alternative means of carrying out death sentences. Debate on the House floor, however, extended beyond the firing squad itself, with lawmakers expressing discomfort with capital punishment more broadly.

Indiana House narrowly rejects firing squad execution bill

House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, last week emphasized the state’s existing death penalty law and the logistical challenges surrounding lethal injection.

“We have capital punishment in the state of Indiana. It’s our law and has been our law for a long time,” Huston said. “The current way of doing it has become challenging because of some process issues around purchasing and maintaining the lethal injection drugs. I understand there were concerns — first of all about capital punishment, and second of all about the means by firing squad.”

“But look, we have capital punishment in this state. That’s the state law,” he continued. “There has to be a way to administer it. And I think that’s what Rep. Lucas is trying to do. I think, frankly, Rep. Lucas did a great job. Obviously, there were some folks that had some concerns, and we’ll, you know, move forward.”

A Senate companion measure filed by Sen. Mike Young also failed to advance. Senate Bill 11 did not receive a committee vote after Corrections and Criminal Law Committee Chair Sen. Aaron Freeman declined to call it. 

Freeman later told the Indiana Capital Chronicle he had not committed to hearing the House version, either, if it passed.

Ten Commandments in schools

Another proposal that failed to advance, House Bill 1086, as originally introduced, would have required Hoosier public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library. 

But amendments adopted in the House Education Committee scaled the proposal back, changing the language to say that schools can optionally display the religious text — and that teachers are not permitted to read from the text while students are present. 

The latest draft of the bill, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, also required the Ten Commandments to be added to the state’s broader collection of “protected writings,” which already includes a dozen or so historical documents and other foundational texts.

Although it cleared the committee along party lines and was later tweaked again on the House floor, Huston didn’t put the measure on the calendar for a final vote Monday.

Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, one of the bill’s coauthors, opined that the changes might have rendered the bill redundant with existing law.

Lawmakers abandon proposed social media ban for minors

Language aimed at restricting children’s access to social media also failed to move forward — though the underlying bill remains alive.

A provision stripped from Richmond Sen. Jeff Raatz’s Senate Bill 199 would have prohibited social media companies — like Facebook and YouTube — from creating accounts for children aged 12 and under. It also would have required parental consent for adolescents aged 13 to 17. 

At least eight other states have enacted similar restrictions, but several of those laws have been blocked by courts over free speech concerns.

Those legal challenges weighed on some members of Indiana’s Republican supermajority, said Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville

Parents’ rights were also central to the debate, Bray told reporters last week.

“At what point is the state taking away from the parents their choice about what’s the right thing to do for their child?” he asked.

The amended version of Senate Bill 199 — without the social media ban — is still moving in the House, where it has been assigned to the Education Committee.

Democrats decry House Speaker’s decision

Some bills never reached a vote at all, despite being eligible for final chamber consideration.

When Huston released the final third-reading calendar for House bills on Monday, several proposals were left off the agenda. 

One of the omitted measures was House Bill 1066, authored by Rep. Mitch Gore, D-Indianapolis, which would have prohibited local governments from purchasing luxury vehicles with taxpayer dollars.

Democrats objected on the House floor, arguing the move violated chamber rules, but the Republican supermajority voted down the challenge.

The bill had bipartisan support and followed legislation passed last year in response to high-end vehicle purchases by Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith and Secretary of State Diego Morales.

Gore told the chamber he had no role in the decision to exclude the bill from the calendar and accused Huston of trying to “quietly kill it.”

In a statement issued later Monday, Gore said the decision ignored the financial pressures facing Hoosiers. 

“Hoosiers are struggling to make ends meet as daily life is more expensive than ever,” he said. “Instead of focusing on passing legislation promoting good governance, Republicans decided to kill my bill in a closed door meeting. It defies logic.”

Gore added that his bill “was about protecting Hoosier tax dollars from waste, fraud and abuse,” calling it “gravely disappointing” that the proposal was sidelined without explanation.

Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, echoed that criticism during Monday’s floor debate.

“It’s one thing to manage the process,” Pierce said. “It’s another to just decide you don’t like a bill, or maybe you don’t like the author of the bill, and you don’t put it on the calendar for the final day for third reading.”

Huston did not explain why Gore’s bill was left off the calendar.

Online gambling, marijuana policies stalled

Efforts to expand online gambling in Indiana additionally faltered.

House Bill 1078, which would have allowed the Hoosier Lottery to sell tickets online, did not advance before the deadline.

Indiana keeps bucking marijuana legalization, tightening related laws instead

Bill author Rep. Ethan Manning, R-Logansport, previously told the Capital Chronicle the proposal lacked sufficient support and that the legislature appears unwilling to move forward with online gambling in any form this year.

Instead, lawmakers moved in the opposite direction by approving House Bill 1052, which bans so-called “sweepstakes” games — online offerings that mimic illegal gambling and involve exchanging payment for a chance at monetary prizes.

Marijuana legislation has similarly stalled.

While one bill regulating — and effectively banning — off-brand marijuana products such as Delta-8 continues to move forward, two separate measures addressing traditional marijuana policy failed to advance.

House Bill 1298, authored by Lucas, would have reclassified marijuana as a less dangerous drug under Indiana law. House Bill 1191, filed by Gore, sought to decriminalize possession of two ounces or less. Neither bill received the necessary committee hearings — or votes — needed to advance before the deadline.

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.