INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WOWO) — Indiana plans to move forward with the scheduled execution of death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit on Nov. 5, despite a failed lethal injection in Tennessee that has prompted that state’s governor to suspend executions and order an independent review. The Indiana Department of Correction says it remains confident in its execution procedures, even though Indiana and Tennessee use the same lethal injection drug, pentobarbital. Indiana officials said Thursday that the state has not yet obtained the drugs planned for Weisheit’s execution. The Department of Correction declined to provide details about who will administer the drugs, how medical personnel will be involved or what safeguards will be used to verify and handle the execution drugs. “The Indiana Department of Correction is confident in its ability to carry out executions as ordered by the court and in accordance with established policies and procedures,” DOC spokesperson Noelle Russell said in a statement to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “For security and operational reasons, the department does not discuss specific details regarding the administration of its execution protocol,” Russell said. The statement came one day after Tennessee’s attempted execution of Christa Pike was halted after officials administered two rounds of lethal injection drugs without causing her death. According to the Associated Press and other witnesses, Pike remained alive for more than an hour after the procedure began and was eventually transported to a hospital. Her attorneys said Thursday that she was in critical condition. Tennessee officials said the execution team followed the state’s established protocol. The Tennessee Department of Correction said in a statement that the lethal injection chemical had consistently been effective and that the protocol did not permit additional procedures beyond those carried out that night. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee ordered an independent investigation and halted the state’s remaining scheduled execution for 2026. The failed execution has drawn particular attention in Indiana because both states use pentobarbital as a single-drug lethal injection protocol. Indiana has carried out three executions since resuming capital punishment in December 2024. Pentobarbital was used in each of those executions. Indiana’s next scheduled execution is for Weisheit, who was sentenced to death for the 2010 killings of eight-year-old Alyssa Lynch and five-year-old Caleb Lynch in Evansville. He was also convicted of arson. The Indiana Supreme Court has set his execution for before sunrise Nov. 5 at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Weisheit’s attorneys are separately pursuing clemency. The Indiana Parole Board is scheduled to hear from Weisheit at the prison Oct. 16 and hear public testimony Oct. 19 in Indianapolis. The board will then make a recommendation to Gov. Mike Braun, who has the final decision on clemency. The Indiana Parole Board’s official schedule confirms the Oct. 16 clemency hearing and the Oct. 19 public hearings. The board says its recommendation is expected after the Oct. 23 deadline. Braun’s office did not respond to questions about whether the governor would consider pausing Indiana executions or ordering a review of the state’s procedures following the Tennessee incident. Weisheit’s attorney, Joe Perkovich, said the Tennessee failure increases concerns about Indiana’s secrecy surrounding its execution process. “We have a lot of concerns,” Perkovich said. “The opacity of this regime, in terms of the Indiana protocol, is staggering compared to others.” Perkovich said the defense has limited ability to independently evaluate the drugs Indiana intends to use or the qualifications of the people involved in obtaining and administering them. Indiana’s execution procedures have previously faced scrutiny following the 2025 execution of Benjamin Ritchie. Attorneys who witnessed Ritchie’s execution said they observed his head and shoulders lift from the gurney after pentobarbital was administered. Defense attorneys also questioned whether storage temperatures may have affected the drugs. The Indiana Department of Correction disputed those descriptions and maintained that Ritchie’s execution was carried out according to protocol. Records previously obtained by the Indiana Capital Chronicle provide details about Indiana’s written execution procedures, including requirements involving intravenous access, training, medical evaluation and monitoring. The protocol requires execution team members to receive training at least quarterly. That training includes practical intravenous-access exercises with oversight from regional emergency medical services and practice using equipment designed to help locate veins. The protocol also provides for more frequent training as an execution date approaches. During court proceedings in 2025, former Indiana State Prison Warden Ron Neal testified that the execution team practiced weekly after Ritchie’s death warrant was issued, including inserting IVs into live volunteers. The protocol requires a medical evaluation of the condemned person approximately 30 days before an execution, including an assessment of venous access. Additional vein assessments are required weekly after that evaluation. The written procedures also assign responsibilities to a physician selected by the prison warden. The physician is required to be present at the prison, observe IV placement and supervise attempts to establish access at another location if staff cannot successfully use an arm vein. If peripheral IV access cannot be established, the protocol provides for the physician to establish central venous access or another method of access. The protocol also calls for consultation with a licensed physician regarding preparation and administration of the execution drugs. It requires monitoring for infiltration, which occurs when fluid escapes a vein, as well as continuous observation of IV lines for leaks or blockages. If an IV problem develops, the execution team is directed to switch to an alternate line, with the warden’s approval before continuing. The single-drug procedure also provides for backup sets of pentobarbital syringes if the condemned person continues to show signs of life after an earlier set has been administered. Indiana DOC did not provide additional information Thursday about whether the existing protocol has been changed or identify the personnel expected to carry it out for Weisheit. Medical experts said the Tennessee incident raises questions that cannot be answered simply by examining the written protocol. Dr. Jonathan Groner, an emeritus clinical professor of surgery at Ohio State University who has studied executions, said the available accounts from Tennessee suggest a potential problem with intravenous access, while cautioning that the available information does not establish what caused the failure. Groner said successful IV placement requires practical experience and that placing an IV in a healthy volunteer during training may not fully replicate the challenges involved with a condemned prisoner. He also said an IV can stop functioning after it has initially been placed successfully, requiring staff to recognize the problem and respond quickly. Groner said anyone administering pentobarbital should closely monitor the injection site. Another potential complication is extravasation, when a drug intended to enter a vein instead enters surrounding tissue. Pentobarbital’s prescribing information warns that extravasation can cause tissue damage, including tissue death. Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician at Emory University, said descriptions of injuries around Pike’s IV site were consistent with the possibility of medication entering tissue outside the vein, although he also said drug quality could potentially be a factor. Zivot said the presence of a physician during an execution does not necessarily mean appropriate emergency treatment would be available if something goes wrong. “What tool do they have? What medicines do they have?” Zivot said. “You know, what skills does that doctor have?” The questions extend beyond the procedure itself to the drugs being used. Michaela Almgren, a pharmacy professor at the University of South Carolina, said pharmaceutical safeguards should include documentation of a drug’s source, testing to verify its potency and quality, and records showing how the drug was stored and transferred. “Lethal-injection drugs should be tested using appropriate pharmaceutical testing methodologies to confirm potency and quality, and expired drugs should not be used,” Almgren said. She also said controlled substances should have documentation showing their chain of custody from the manufacturer or compounding facility through final administration. Indiana law protects the identities of companies and individuals involved in supplying execution drugs. Court records from litigation before Roy Lee Ward’s execution in October 2025 indicated that Indiana intended to use manufactured pentobarbital rather than a compounded version. Indiana officials told the Capital Chronicle Thursday that the Department of Correction currently has no execution drugs in its inventory and has not acquired the drugs intended for Weisheit’s execution. A state inventory log released earlier this year showed no pentobarbital remaining after Ward’s execution. Records showed Indiana had spent at least $1.275 million on pentobarbital since the state resumed executions in 2024. The availability of execution drugs has been an issue in Weisheit’s case before. When the Indiana Supreme Court set his execution date, the justices noted arguments concerning the state’s ability to obtain execution drugs but said those issues were outside the scope of that particular proceeding and could be pursued separately. Weisheit’s attorneys are also challenging his execution through clemency proceedings. They argue that evidence involving brain injuries, mental impairments and childhood trauma was not adequately presented during his original court proceedings. The Indiana Parole Board’s Oct. 16 hearing with Weisheit will take place at Indiana State Prison. Public testimony will be heard in Indianapolis on Oct. 19, with testimony supporting clemency scheduled for the morning and testimony opposing clemency scheduled for the afternoon. The board is expected to make a recommendation after Oct. 23. Braun will then decide whether to grant or deny clemency. The governor previously denied clemency to Ritchie and Ward before their executions in 2025. If it proceeds, Weisheit’s execution would be Indiana’s fourth since the state ended a roughly 15-year pause in executions. The Tennessee incident has placed renewed attention on the reliability of lethal injection procedures nationwide, but Indiana officials say they have no current plans to suspend Weisheit’s execution. Tennessee officials have said their execution team followed its established procedures, while Gov. Lee’s independent review is expected to examine what went wrong during Pike’s attempted execution. For Indiana, the immediate issue is whether its existing safeguards and execution team can avoid the type of failure that occurred in Tennessee. For now, state officials are declining to provide additional operational details while maintaining that Indiana’s established procedures are sufficient to carry out the court-ordered execution. Weisheit’s clemency proceedings are scheduled to take place before the Nov. 5 execution date. 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