INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Mike Braun will not delay the scheduled execution of Jeffrey Weisheit, who was convicted of killing two children.

But Braun has not made a final decision on whether to grant clemency.

Weisheit, 50, is scheduled to be executed before sunrise Thursday for the murders of 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and 5-year-old Caleb Lynch in a 2010 arson in Evansville.

Weisheit’s attorneys requested more time to conduct brain scans to examine how severe mental illness and brain trauma may have contributed to the crimes. Indiana’s I-Team has learned that Braun will not delay the execution to allow the scans.

Braun has not announced whether he will follow the Indiana Parole Board’s recommendation to carry out the death sentence.

Weisheit’s attorney, Joseph Perkovich, told Indiana’s I-Team that he expects Braun to decide on clemency Wednesday, the day before the scheduled execution.

Protesters against the death penalty entered the governor’s office Friday morning to deliver a national petition with more than 1,000 signatures and copies of 546 letters from Hoosiers asking Braun to stop the execution.

“I don’t think the proper response to someone taking someone’s life is taking another life,” said Joel Reichenbach, an organizer with Live Free and Indy Action Coalition. “The answer to killing is not more killing.”

Braun was not in his office when the demonstrators arrived.

Weisheit’s execution would be Indiana’s first lethal injection since the failed execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee. Perkovich filed a reprieve application with the governor, raising concerns about Indiana’s lethal injection protocols.

“Indiana is in the nation’s spotlight right now and it could go very badly,” Executive Director Stefanie Anderson of Indiana Abolition Coalition said. “I think the easiest thing to do would be to just halt executions for now.”

The Indiana Department of Correction says it is prepared to carry out Weisheit’s execution without issue. The department has already spent $275,000 on the drugs needed to put him to death.

Weisheit’s execution would be Indiana’s fourth in the past two years and the third under the Braun administration.

• See also: Mother of children killed by death row inmate asks Parole Board to deny clemency

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