Witness to death row execution gives chilling account of inmate's final moments
A murderer who shot a police officer was killed on death row on Tuesday - after the victim's family insisted "it's time" for the sentence.
Benjamin Ritchie's lawyer described the moment the 45-year-old man was given the lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Steve Schutte, the attorney, told reporters: "I couldn't see his face. He was lying flat by that time. He sat up, twitched, laid back down."
Under state law, Ritchie was allowed five witnesses at his execution, including Mr Schutte. Before he became the second person executed in Indiana in 15 years, Ritchie uttered his last words: "I love my family, my friends, and all the support I've gotten. I hope they all find peace."
The dad had been on death row since 2002 when he was convicted of killing Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a chase on foot. Mr Toney's family and friends stood outside the prison on Tuesday while the execution happened.
Speaking last week ahead of the execution, Mr Toney's wife Dee Dee Horen said: "It's time. We're all tired. 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."
The US Supreme Court declined to take the case, exhausting all of Ritchie's legal options to fight the death sentence. The father ate his last meal - a Tour of Italy dish from Olive Garden, which consists of Chicken Parmigiana, Lasangna Classico and Fettuccine Alfredo on one plate - and was then put to rest.
But his attorneys had argued the death penalty was not appropriate, claiming the man was no longer "the same person who committed that crime." Mr Schutte told the court: "This is a foolish, senseless, agonising waste of time and money."
Anti-death penalty advocates gathered outside the jail on Tuesday too. Indiana only resumed executions in December after a years-long hiatus. The state is one of eight, also including Texas and Tennessee, to permit executions.
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.
Mr 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.
In April, a murderer finally apologised for killing a young mum - minutes before he was executed on death row in Texas. Moises Sandoval Mendoza had spent more than 20 years in a state prison in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson, whom he strangled and stabbed.
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