Indiana man set for execution in state’s second since 2009

An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer is set to receive a lethal injection early Tuesday in the state’s second execution in 15 years.

Benjamin Ritchie, 45, has been on death row for more than 20 years after being convicted in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a foot chase.

Ritchie is scheduled to be executed “before the hour of sunrise” at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, where anti-death penalty advocates gathered late Monday. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case late Monday, exhausting Ritchie’s legal options to fight the death sentence.

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, a floor drain and an adjacent viewing room. They’ve offered few other details about the process, including the time the executions take place.

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. He was the first officer of the small department to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty. The community of 14,000 people mourned the married father of two as a person who showed up to help others.

When Toney died, “Everyone of us involved, including Bill, had something stolen from them that they’ll never get back,” said Deputy Police Chief Tom Hurrle, who worked with him.

Relatives spoke at a clemency hearing last week, urging for the execution to move forward.

“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.

“He’s finally come to have some coping skills. He’s a different man,” said defense attorney Steven Schutte.

Republican Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ritchie’s clemency bid last week as the parole board recommended. Braun didn’t explain his decision, but board members said Ritchie’s case didn’t meet the bar for commuting a sentence and cited a dozen violations during Ritchie’s time in prison, including threatening others with violence.

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.

Disability rights advocates say Ritchie’s brain damage should exclude him from the death penalty.

As the sun set Monday, the Rev. Richard Holy, a Catholic priest, recited the rosary with about 20 people in the prison parking lot and called for an end to the death penalty.

Executing Ritchie “is not going to bring Officer Toney back,” Holy said. “We don’t have to keep taking one life to exact justice for taking another.”

After the vigil, people were invited to ring a large bell displayed by a group opposed to the death penalty.

Expressing regret and awaiting execution

Attorneys say Ritchie has changed during his more than two decades behind bars and 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 regrets 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. “That was her right. That was his family’s right.”

Ritchie has spent his last days getting visits from friends and family. Under state law, he’s allowed up to five witnesses at his execution, which will include attorneys and friends.

“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.”

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Tareen reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer John O’Connor contributed from Springfield, Illinois.