Indiana Set to Execute Jeffrey Weisheit Today as Lawyers Question Drug Supplier and $275,000 Price Tag

Indiana is scheduled to carry out its first execution of 2026 before sunrise today, Nov. 5, at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The condemned man is Jeffrey Weisheit, 50, sentenced to death for the 2010 murders of 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb, in a house fire near Evansville.

Weisheit's attorneys do not contest his guilt. Their fight is over the drugs.

The drugs and the invoice

The Department of Correction confirmed Monday that it paid $275,000 for the pentobarbital it plans to use and has the drugs in hand. An inventory log released to the Indiana Capital Chronicle records the receipt of six 50-milliliter vials on Oct. 29, taking the prison's listed supply from zero to six.

The log does not list a supplier. It also lacks expiration dates, temperature readings and testing results.

NBC News reported that the typical price for commercially made injectable pentobarbital runs $15,120 to $16,250. The invoice attached to Weisheit's reprieve application is heavily redacted and shows neither a date nor a supplier.

A September 2025 invoice for the same dollar amount, tied to the last time Indiana added pentobarbital vials to its supply, appears to have revealed a possible supplier by accident, according to exhibits in the application. Weisheit's lawyers say the supplier is Pharmaneek Inc., an Indianapolis pharmacy.

The state has not confirmed that. Indiana law shields the identity of any pharmacy or distributor that provides execution drugs, and bars that information from discovery and from evidence in civil or criminal cases.

The pharmacy

The Indiana Board of Pharmacy placed Pharmaneek on indefinite probation on March 31 for failing safety inspections and what the board described as "unprofessional practices leading to drug contamination," according to the attorneys' filing. A separate account describes the pending case as alleged violations of compounding restrictions.

The attorney general's office is seeking to suspend the pharmacy's license. An emergency show-cause hearing is set for Monday, Nov. 9, four days after the scheduled execution. The board has not ordered a suspension. Pharmaneek did not respond to a request for comment.

"It is alarming that the state purchased these drugs from a pharmacy it is trying to shut down due to major safety issues in the storage and management of drugs," said Joe Perkovich, one of Weisheit's attorneys. His team has asked Braun to pause executions and order an independent review of procurement and procedures.

The lawyers also note the Capital Chronicle obtained DOC temperature logs through public records requests that showed readings outside the recommended storage range. The DOC did not answer questions about whether any potency testing has been done.

"Indiana is singular in its apparent failure to conduct any testing to ensure the potency, purity, and stability of its execution drugs," Perkovich said. He pointed to a 2017 Arizona settlement that requires an analysis of execution chemicals on request, and a March 2025 affidavit from South Carolina's corrections director describing lab testing before a scheduled execution.

The state's position

The Department of Correction says it is following the law. "The Department of Correction is in compliance with Indiana laws that govern the confidential procurement of drugs utilized to carry out a court-ordered execution," the agency said. "We remain confident in our process and our ability to humanely carry out the lawfully imposed sentence for the murders of two innocent children."

The attorney general's office said it is confident the execution can proceed "safely and lawfully." A spokesperson also accused Weisheit's lawyers of publicly naming a pharmacy "despite state law requiring supplier information to remain confidential," and declined to comment on protected information.

Weisheit's attorneys have raised other concerns. Perkovich says Indiana's protocol is decades old and relies on prison guards to place IV lines, work he says belongs to experienced medical professionals.

The lawyers cite Tennessee's Sept. 30 execution attempt of Christa Pike. Perkovich says it involved failed IV lines and indications of adulterated drugs, and left Pike in a coma for a week without killing her. Pike's legal team is now fighting over preserving evidence from that attempt.

Clemency denied, reprieve request pending

Braun announced Monday just after 4 p.m. that he was accepting the Parole Board's unanimous recommendation to deny clemency. His statement did not address the lawyers' separate request for a reprieve and independent review.

The lawyers said the governor "has yet to address the central questions emerging from the State's records," including why the state paid so much to a supplier the attorney general is trying to sanction. A reprieve would postpone the execution without commuting the sentence. As of Tuesday, that request was still pending.

Part of a busy execution day

Indiana is one of three states with executions set for today. Florida plans to execute Jesse Guardado, 64, for the 2004 stabbing death of 75-year-old Jackie Malone. That would be Florida's 19th execution of 2026, matching its record from last year. Alabama plans to execute Michael Taylor, 54, by lethal injection for the 1991 murders of an elderly couple.

It would be the second day this year with three executions. The first was Aug. 13. Nationwide, 32 executions have been carried out in 2026, more than half of them in Florida.

The state's prices and its secrecy are public-money questions whatever one thinks of capital punishment. Taxpayers paid $275,000 for six vials, and Indiana's own attorney general is simultaneously seeking to pull the license of the pharmacy the defense says supplied them. The state has not said whether the drugs were tested. The Board of Pharmacy's Nov. 9 hearing will be the first public proceeding to address Pharmaneek's license after the execution date.