Contextualizing claim Indiana HB 1119 would have allowed death row gas chambers, firing squad if passed

In early 2026, a claim spread online that Indiana lawmakers attempted to pass legislation that would authorize executions via gas chambers and firing squads. 

The rumor circulated on platforms such as Facebook, X, TikTok and Instagram. Snopes readers also wrote in to ask whether Indiana was actively building gas chambers. 

This claim needs context. Indiana lawmakers did, in fact, introduce and advance legislation that would have allowed the state to execute people on death row using firing squads or nitrogen hypoxia, a method that kills a prisoner through suffocation via nitrogen gas. However, the bill did not pass a January 2026 vote in the state House of Representatives, meaning it was not law as of this writing.

Additionally, state execution via nitrogen gas does not require building gas chambers. As of this writing, in the states where nitrogen hypoxia is used, death row prisoners breathe the gas in through a mask.

As such, we have rated this claim a mixture of truth and undetermined information. 

The legislation, House Bill 1119, narrowly failed to pass the House in a Jan. 28 roll call vote. The bill's sponsor did not bring it back for another vote by the deadline for the 2026 legislative session. (While the state's legislative calendar initially set a Jan. 29 deadline for passing legislation through the House, lawmakers postponed the deadline to Feb. 2 due to inclement weather.) 

Republican state Rep. Jim Lucas, the sponsor of the bill in question, did not immediately return inquiries as to whether he planned to bring back the legislation in future legislative and whether the bill might technically allow Indiana to build a gas chamber for executions, as social media posts claimed. 

Bill would have expanded execution methods 

For legislation introduced by a state House lawmaker to become law, it must pass through relevant committees within the House before being presented for a vote in front of the House floor, where the full membership of the chamber may vote on it. Then, it must go through the same process in the Senate before it can become law. 

Lucas introduced HB 1119 on Jan. 5, 2026. According to Indiana's legislative website, the bill advanced through the Committee on Courts and Criminal Code but failed to pass the House floor. The bill received 48 votes in favor, three short of the 51 necessary to pass. (Indiana House rules state that bills must receive a constitutional majority — meaning more than half of all elected members, not just those voting — to advance.)

Here's what the bill said (emphasis ours): 

Sec. 1.5. 

(a) The department of correction may carry out an execution by: 

(1) lethal injection; 

(2) firing squad; or 

(3) nitrogen hypoxia; 

as determined by the commissioner of the department of correction. 

(b) The department of correction shall establish a facility and a protocol for carrying out an execution by firing squad. 

(c) The department of correction shall establish a facility and a protocol for carrying out an execution by nitrogen hypoxia. 

In Indiana, as of this writing, the state executes death row prisoners using lethal injection. 

Lucas said during a Jan. 21 legislative committee hearing that there have been "persistent difficulties" in obtaining lethal-injection drugs and the bill would have provided "much needed" additional options (for a recording, search for the Jan. 21 meeting in the Indiana General Assembly's video archive and go to 1:27:31). Opponents, including a representative for the Indiana Public Defender Council, testified against Lucas' claims in the same hearing.

How do states use nitrogen hypoxia on death row? 

The legislation did not explicitly describe what kind of "facility" and "protocol" the state would use for carrying out an execution via nitrogen hypoxia, but examining other states' execution methods could provide clues as to how Indiana may have conducted these kinds of executions. 

Five states have authorized execution using nitrogen hypoxia, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center — but only two states have actually used it: Alabama and Louisiana. 

In Louisiana, "execution by nitrogen hypoxia is accomplished by placing a mask on the inmate's face and replacing oxygen with nitrogen gas," according to the governor's website. 

Alabama also uses a mask, rather than a gas chamber, to administer the nitrogen gas, according to Page 15 of the state's execution protocol. It is possible that the state considered using a gas chamber, rather than a mask; in 2021, amid the state's efforts to prepare for resuming executions, journalists and researchers noted that the Alabama Department of Corrections initially refused to clarify whether it planned to use a gas chamber or a mask for execution via nitrogen hypoxia. 

U.S. states have previously used gas chambers for death row executions. Nevada became the first state to execute someone using a gas chamber in 1924; the last, as of this writing, was Arizona in 1999, according to The Associated Press. 

In 2021, Arizona refurbished its gas chamber to prepare it for executions, based on documents obtained by The Guardian. However, Arizona's subsequent executions have happened via lethal injection. The Associated Press reported in 2022 that Arizona is the only state that still has a working death row gas chamber.