Joseph Perkovitch, one of Weisheit’s attorneys, said the states use the same execution drug supplier and both restrict information about lethal-injection drugs. He said Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital, the same drug Indiana uses, and called for a review of Indiana’s execution protocols, drug supply and execution team qualifications.

The legal team plans to submit a reprieve application to Braun on Oct. 27. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee temporarily halted executions after Pike’s failed execution. Indiana Department of Correction spokesperson Noelle Russell said earlier this month that officials were confident in the state’s ability to carry out executions and had purchased the drugs intended for Weisheit’s execution.

Indiana does not allow members of the media to witness executions, one of two states with that restriction, according to the information presented by Weisheit’s attorneys. Perkovitch said Indiana’s limits on disclosure make scrutiny of its practices especially important.

Weisheit, who was convicted of killing 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother, Caleb, is scheduled to die Nov. 5. The children were killed in a 2010 house fire in Evansville. Prosecutors said Weisheit, then their mother’s boyfriend, set the fire; he was convicted and sentenced to death in 2013.

At a clemency hearing Oct. 19, the children’s mother, Lisa Lynch, urged the Indiana Parole Board to recommend that Braun deny clemency. The board will make a recommendation, while Braun has the final decision. “The truth of what happened to my children has never changed,” Lynch said in a prepared statement.

Weisheit’s attorneys have also asked the Indiana Supreme Court to delay the execution by two weeks so he can undergo brain scans. They say scans could clarify the extent of his mental-health conditions, including bipolar disorder, and the effects of traumatic brain injuries. Perkovitch argued that those conditions bear on Weisheit’s culpability and were not fully presented to the jury.

The defense also cited a neurologist’s assessment that Weisheit’s mental state has severely declined in recent years. Weisheit’s relatives asked the board to spare his life, describing him as depressed and isolated when young and recounting past suicide attempts.

Law enforcement officials who testified at the hearing called for the death sentence to be carried out. Retired Vanderburgh County detective Randy Chapman said Weisheit killed the children to retaliate against their mother. Deputy Attorney General Tyler Banks said Weisheit’s mental-health claims had been addressed in years of appeals and that the sentence had withstood those challenges.

Indiana resumed executions in 2024 after a 15-year hiatus and has executed three people since then. Weisheit is one of five men remaining on the state’s death row.