A man convicted of killing an Indiana police officer during a foot chase 24 years ago will be executed next month, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Benjamin Ritchie shot Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney in September 2000. According to court records, Ritchie jumped out of a stolen van after a police pursuit. Toney was chasing him when Ritchie turned and shot him four times.
A jury convicted Ritchie of murder and other offenses in 2002. The trial judge imposed the death penalty.
Ritchie has spent years challenging the convictions at the state and federal level to no avail. His latest motion asks permission to raise claims that his attorney was ineffective because the lawyer failed to investigate whether Ritchie suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorders as well as childhood lead exposure. Ritchie also sought permission to argue that his age at the time of the shooting — he was 20 years old — should be taken into consideration.
The Supreme Court denied the request and ordered that he be executed before sunrise on May 20. Justice Geoffrey Slaughter wrote that the court couldn't assume further evidence of Ritchie's cognitive impairments would have swayed his jury.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush wrote in dissent that the evidence suggests Ritchie was suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder when he committed his crimes.
“We should not set a date for the most irrevocable of punishments without first ensuring that Ritchie was not denied the effective assistance of counsel,” Rush wrote.
Court records list Ritchie's attorney as public defender Amy Karozos. She didn't immediately respond to a message The Associated Press left on her office voicemail after hours Tuesday seeking comment on the justices' decision.
Ritchie's execution will be the first in the state since Joseph Corcoran was put to death by lethal injection on Dec. 18. Corcoran was convicted in the July 1997 shootings of his brother; his sister's fiancé; and two other men.
His execution was the state's first in 15 years, a hiatus marked by a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.
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