After more than two decades on death row, Benjamin Ritchie, a 45-year-old man was executed in Indiana early Tuesday after spending over two decades on death row for the 2000 fatal shooting of a police officer.
The execution took place at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, marking only the second time the state has carried out capital punishment in the past 15 years.
READ ALSO, Gov Ododo’s one year in office worthy of celebration —Aide
Ritchie was sentenced to death in 2002 for killing Officer Bill Toney of the Beech Grove Police Department. At the time of the incident, Ritchie was 20 years old and on probation for a prior burglary conviction.
During a foot pursuit following the theft of a van in Beech Grove, Ritchie turned and fired at Officer Toney, who later died from his injuries. Toney, 31, a husband and father of two, became the first officer in the small-town department’s history to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty.
According to officials from the Indiana Department of Correction, Ritchie was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m. on Tuesday. His final meal came from Olive Garden, and his last words reportedly expressed peace and love for his family and friends.
His attorney, Steve Schutte, witnessed the execution and described the process as “limited” due to obstructed visibility. “He sat up, twitched, and then laid back down,” Schutte recounted to reporters.
READ ALSO, Kogi SGS Crowned Yeye Oba of Mopa Land
The U.S. Supreme Court had declined to hear Ritchie’s final appeal just hours before the execution, sealing his fate. His legal team had exhausted all remaining options, with advocacy groups campaigning both for and against the execution outside the prison gates into the early hours.
This execution is one of a dozen scheduled across eight states this year, with Indiana recently resuming executions after a long hiatus caused by a shortage of lethal injection drugs. Notably, Indiana remains one of only two U.S. states alongside Wyoming that bars members of the media from witnessing executions.
The Associated Press and other media outlets recently filed a federal lawsuit demanding access to executions, but a judge rejected a preliminary injunction last week, ruling that the exclusion does not infringe on First Amendment rights or amount to unfair treatment.
