An Indiana man found guilty of fatally shooting a police officer back in 2000 faced execution by lethal injection on Tuesday. This marked the state’s second execution within a span of 15 years.
Benjamin Ritchie, aged 45, had been serving on Indiana’s death row since his conviction in 2002. He was found guilty of killing Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a foot pursuit.
Ritchie’s execution took place at the Indiana State Prison located in Michigan City. According to officials from the Indiana Department of Correction, the execution procedure commenced shortly after midnight, and Ritchie was declared dead at 12:46 a.m.
Ritchie’s last meal was from the Olive Garden and he expressed love, support and peace for his friends and family, according to the statement.
Under state law, he was allowed five witnesses at his execution, which included his attorney Steve Schutte, who told reporters he had a limited view of the process.
“I couldn’t see his face. He was lying flat by that time,” Schutte said. “He sat up, twitched, laid back down.”
The process was carried out hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case, exhausting all of Ritchie’s legal options to fight the death sentence.
Dozens of people, both anti-death penalty advocates and supporters of Toney, stood outside the prison until early Tuesday.
Indiana resumed executions in December after a yearslong hiatus due to a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide. Prison officials provided photos of the execution chamber before Joseph Corcoran’s execution, showing a space that looks like an operating room with a gurney, fluorescent lighting and an adjacent viewing room. They’ve since offered few other details.
Among 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that bars media witnesses. The other, Wyoming, has conducted one execution in the last half-century.
The Associated Press and other media organizations filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking media access, but a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction last week that would have allowed journalists to witness Ritchie’s execution and future ones. The judge found that barring the news media doesn’t violate the First Amendment nor does it single out the news media for unequal treatment.
The execution in Indiana is among 12 scheduled in eight states this year. Ritchie’s execution and two others in Texas and Tennessee will be carried out this week.
The 2000 fatal shooting of a police officer
Ritchie was 20 when he and others stole a van in Beech Grove, near Indianapolis. He then fired at Toney during a foot chase, killing him.
At the time Ritchie was on probation from a 1998 burglary conviction.
Toney, 31, had worked at the Beech Grove Police Department for two years. The married father of two was the first officer of the small department to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty.
Relatives spoke at a clemency hearing last week in support of the execution.
“It’s time. We’re all tired,” said Dee Dee Horen, who was Toney’s wife. “It is time for this chapter of my story, our story, to be closed. It’s time for us to remember Bill, to remember Bill’s life, and not his death.”
Appealing a death sentence
Ritchie’s attorneys have fought the death sentence, arguing his legal counsel at trial was ineffective because his lawyers failed to fully investigate and present evidence on his fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and childhood lead exposure.
Current defense attorneys say Ritchie suffered “severe brain damage” because his mother abused alcohol and drugs during pregnancy and he’s struggled with decision-making. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005.
Disability rights advocates argued that Ritchie’s brain damage should have excluded him from the death penalty.
“This is a foolish, senseless, agonizing waste of time and money,” said Schutte, who added that Ritchie was no longer “the same person who committed that crime.”
Attorney General Todd Rokita said the execution honored Toney’s “sacrifice to the community.”
Republican Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ritchie’s clemency bid last week without explanation.
The Indiana Supreme Court denied a request to stop the execution. Ritchie’s attorneys challenged that decision in federal court, which a judge rejected. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the lower court on Sunday.
As the sun set Monday, the Rev. Richard Holy, a Catholic priest, recited the rosary with about 20 people in the prison parking lot.
“We don’t have to keep taking one life to exact justice for taking another,” he said.
Dozens also showed up to honor Toney’s memory.
“I support the death penalty in certain cases and this is one of them,” said Mark Hamner, an Indianapolis-area officer.
Expressing regret and awaiting execution
Attorneys said Ritchie changed during his more than two decades behind bars and had shown remorse.
In court as a young man, Ritchie smiled at Horen and laughed as the verdict was read.
He told a parole board he deeply regretted his actions, especially how he acted with Toney’s widow.
“I wish I could go back to the day in court, because that man’s wife deserved to say everything she needed to say to me, and that punk kid should have just kept his mouth shut and let her say whatever she needed to say,” Ritchie said.
Ritchie, who was also a father, spent his last days getting visits from friends and family.
“I’ve ruined my life and other people’s lives, and I’m so sorry for that night,” he told the parole board earlier this month. “You can’t take back what you did.”
Tareen reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer John O’Connor contributed from Springfield, Illinois.
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