An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer was put to death by lethal injection early Tuesday in the state’s second execution since 2009.
Among 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that bars media witnesses.
Ritchie’s execution and two others in Texas and Tennessee will be carried out this week.
Ritchie’s attorneys are challenging that decision in federal court and have also filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Disability rights advocates say Ritchie’s brain damage should exclude him from the death penalty.
The state’s second execution since 2009 took place early Tuesday when a man convicted of killing a police officer in 2000 was executed by lethal injection. After a 15-year break, Indiana resumed executions in December.
For over twenty years, 45-year-old Benjamin Ritchie had been on death row after being found guilty of shooting Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney to death during a foot pursuit.
According to Indiana Department of Correction officials, Ritchie was put to death at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. In a statement posted online, IDOC stated that he was declared dead at 12:46 a.m. and that the execution process began just after midnight. m.
During his more than 20 years in prison, Ritchie told a parole board earlier this month that he had changed. The 31-year-old married father of two children was killed as a result of his actions, for which he expressed regret.
He remarked, “I’m so sorry for that night, and I’ve ruined my life and other people’s lives.”. “I would like to go back and simply shake that child because he refused to listen to anyone. You are unable to undo your actions. “.”.
The Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that studies and gathers data on the death penalty, says Indiana laws mandate that death row inmates be put to death before sunrise on the day their executions are set to occur.
Executions were resumed in Indiana following a lull caused by a shortage of lethal injection drugs that impacted correctional facilities across the country. Without informing the public, the state added a new lethal medication to its protocol after its last execution in 2009 to make up for the shortage. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the Indiana Court of Appeals invalidated the new protocol in 2017, finding that the state’s Department of Corrections had violated rule-making procedures by secretly implementing a protocol that had never been used in the execution chamber. Indiana has been under fire for its death penalty procedures, which have long been among the most secretive in the nation.
Prior to Joseph Corcoran’s execution in December, prison officials released images of the execution chamber. A gurney, fluorescent lighting, a floor drain, and a viewing room next to it gave the impression that the area was a simple operating room. Other than the time the executions occur, the state has provided very little information about the procedure.
Indiana is one of two states that prohibit media witnesses out of 27 that have death penalty legislation. Wyoming, the other, has carried out one execution in the previous fifty years. In Indiana, the Associated Press and other media outlets have filed a federal lawsuit to gain access to the media.
This year, 12 executions are planned in eight states, including the one in Indiana on Tuesday. This week, Ritchie will be executed along with two others in Texas and Tennessee.
In Beech Grove, close to Indianapolis, Ritchie and others stole a van when he was 20 years old. Then, while pursuing Toney on foot, he killed him with four shots.
Ritchie was on probation at the time due to a burglary conviction from 1998.
For two years, 31-year-old Toney had been employed at the Beech Grove Police Department. Out of the approximately thirty officers in the police department, he was the first to be shot and killed while performing his duties. The married father of two, who was a neighbor who came to help others, was mourned by the 14,000 residents of the community.
Tom Hurrle, Deputy Police Chief, who worked with Toney, said, “Everyone of us involved, including Bill, had something stolen from them that they’ll never get back,” after Toney passed away.
At a clemency hearing last week, relatives spoke and urged that the execution proceed.
“The moment has arrived. “We’re all exhausted,” Toney’s wife, Dee Dee Horen, said. “It is time to close this chapter in both our and my stories. It’s time for us to honor Bill—not his passing, but his life. “,”.
In their defense of the death penalty, Ritchie’s lawyers claim that his trial counsel was ineffective because they did not thoroughly look into and provide evidence of his childhood lead exposure and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Ritchie has struggled with decision-making and suffered “severe brain damage” as a result of his mother’s drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy, according to current defense lawyers. In 2005, a bipolar disorder diagnosis was also made for him.
He has finally developed some coping mechanisms. “He’s a different man,” defense lawyer Steven Schutte stated.
Republican Gov. Last week, Mike Braun denied Ritchie’s request for clemency, as suggested by the parole board. Although Braun did not provide an explanation for his choice, board members stated that Ritchie’s case did not meet the requirements for commuting a sentence and listed twelve infractions from Ritchie’s incarceration, including violent threats against others.
A motion to halt the execution was denied by the Indiana Supreme Court, but two justices pointed out that the jury was not given correct information regarding Ritchie’s brain damage.
In addition to filing a petition with the U.S. government, Ritchie’s lawyers are contesting that ruling in federal court. S. The Supreme Court.
Advocates for people with disabilities argue that Ritchie should not be executed because of his brain damage.
The parole board also heard testimony from Dr. Megan Carter, who stated in a statement that Ritchie’s “capacity to fully appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct” was “impaired at the time of his crime.”.
Ritchie has changed and shown remorse during his more than 20 years in prison, according to his attorneys.
When the verdict was read in court as a young man, Ritchie laughed and grinned at Horen.
He expressed his profound regret for his behavior, particularly his interactions with Toney’s widow, to a parole board.
Ritchie remarked, “I wish I could go back to the day in court, because that punk kid should have just kept his mouth shut and let that man’s wife say whatever she needed to say if she wanted to tell me everything.”. “She had that right. His family had the right to that. “.
Friends and family paid Ritchie visits during his final days. According to state law, he could have up to five witnesses at his execution, most likely friends and lawyers.
