The unexpected, unusual and eyebrow-raising bills filed by Indiana lawmakers this year
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Hundreds of bills are filed every legislative session, and without fail, there are a few that raise eyebrows — for being unusual or unexpected.
Driving the news: Here are this year's bills that fit that category.
⚖️ Top of the list has to be Senate Bill 11, which would allow for firing squads as an option for death-row inmates.
The big picture: The drugs used for lethal injections, the primary form of carrying out the death penalty, are expensive and have become hard to source.
- Firing-squad executions are extremely rare in the U.S., but five states — Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, South Carolina and Idaho — authorize the method, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
What they're saying: The bill's author, Sen. Mike Young (R-Indianapolis), said it would be a matter of choice — his bill would allow inmates to opt for a firing squad of five people, rather than lethal injection.
- "I just say, let the prisoner decide which way he prefers to have the execution carried out," Young said. "If he's OK with it, so am I."
The latest: SB 11 received an initial hearing in the Senate's Corrections and Criminal Law Committee, but not a vote.
- Another measure, House Bill 1119, would add nitrogen hypoxia to execution methods. It hasn't received a hearing.
- So far, Alabama is the only state that's used this method, which replaces oxygen with nitrogen gas to suffocate the inmate.
💧 Senate Bill 22 would allow for "water cremation."
Zoom in: Water cremation, or alkaline hydrolysis, uses water mixed with alkaline chemicals, heat, and sometimes pressure and agitation, to dramatically accelerate natural decomposition.
- It leaves bone fragments and a sterile liquid that gets discharged with wastewater.
- The process is considered a green alternative to traditional flame cremation.
- Although it's being practiced in more than a dozen states, the bill hasn't received a hearing.
🐱 House Bill 1220 would ban cat declawing, a controversial practice that amputates the distal bones of a cat's paws.
- Although cat declawing is already outlawed in at least six other states, HB 1220 hasn't received a hearing.
⏰ House Bill 1151 revives an age-old debate — how best to observe time in Indiana.
- The bill, which hasn't received a hearing, would exempt the state from daylight saving time.
🚌 House Bill 1059 would allow schools to sell ad space on the sides of their buses.
- It hasn't received a hearing.
🍺 Craving a cold one to get through that afternoon meeting? There's a bill for that.
Driving the brews: House Bill 1079 would allow a beer seller, winery, bar or restaurant to deliver alcoholic drinks to offices.
Zoom in: The bill would make other changes to state alcohol laws, including creating new permits for delivery services delivering alcoholic drinks.
- It would also prohibit the distribution or sale of low-THC hemp extract to anyone under 21.
- It hasn't received a hearing.
🥪 Senate Bill 21 would officially make the breaded tenderloin the state sandwich — made with Indiana-raised pork, of course.
- It's passed the Senate and been sent to the House.