From: bigmongo1963@biteme.com   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/execution-indiana-police-   
   shooting-54aee13773b5b249601ef3f4bf7c6266   
      
   Man executed for the 2000 killing of a police officer in Indiana’s second   
   execution in 15 years   
      
   By  SOPHIA TAREEN and ED WHITE   
   Updated 11:17 AM EDT, May 20, 2025   
      
   MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the fatal shooting   
   of a police officer in 2000 was executed Tuesday by lethal injection in   
   the state’s second execution in 15 years.   
      
   Benjamin Ritchie, 45, had been on Indiana’s death row since 2002, when he   
   was convicted of killing Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a   
   chase on foot.   
      
   Ritchie was executed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City,   
   according to Indiana Department of Correction officials. IDOC said in a   
   statement that the process started shortly after midnight and Ritchie was   
   pronounced 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 was among 12 scheduled in eight states this year.   
   Texas and Tennessee also plan to execute prisoners 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 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 that he   
   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.”   
      
   ___   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)