Editorial: A reminder of the state's ultimate power — Indiana executes again

Chicago Tribune

21-05-2025

Indiana's second execution in 15 years is a grim reminder of the dual tragedy at the heart of capital punishment — the horrific violence inflicted by killers, and the irrevocable power the state wields in taking a life in return.
This board has long questioned whether any human system is equipped to administer such final justice, a stance shaped by decades of reflection and the Pulitzer-winning work of former Tribune Editorial Board member Cornelia Grumman, who challenged readers to confront the fallibility beneath the death penalty's finality.
Before Illinois ended capital punishment in 2011, this board urged reforms such as videotaping interrogations and banning executions of people with intellectual disabilities.
'Now's the time to get it right. Get it right or get rid of it,' we wrote in 2002. Former Gov. Pat Quinn listened, and we applauded.
Capital punishment can feel far removed in Illinois these days. Yet this execution, carried out Tuesday just across the state border in Michigan City, Indiana, makes it feel closer to home.
Prisoner Benjamin Ritchie was 45 when he died at 12:46 a.m. Tuesday, punishment for killing a Beech Grove police officer in 2000.
His was one of 12 executions scheduled across eight states this year, including others this week in Texas and Tennessee.
Lost in the bigger conversation about capital punishment are the victims, a frustration that eats away at families grieving loved ones.
Officer William Toney, a husband and father, was a day from his 32nd birthday when Ritchie shot and killed him. His daughters, just 18 months and 4 years old at the time, grew up without him — a burden no child should bear.
We do not pass judgment on those whose loved ones have been taken by violence, and we recognize that for grieving families, life may feel easier when the person responsible is gone.
But as a society, we do have to grapple with how our justice system handles punishment for those who commit the most grievous crimes. This board has long held grave concerns when it comes to the death penalty.
Indiana is one of 27 other states that continue to practice the death penalty, and is one of just two states that bans reporters from being present at executions. Even in states where the death penalty remains on the books, legal, ethical and political hurdles have led to yearslong delays in carrying out executions.
Indiana's 15-year pause in executions stemmed largely from difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs. Many pharmaceutical companies, especially in Europe, refused to supply drugs for use in executions.
Pharmaceutical companies are right to have qualms about manufacturing products used to end life, and they're not alone. Too many people have been sent to death row, only to be exonerated years later.
Northwestern University research found that 20 people sentenced to death in Illinois between the 1970s and 1990s were later exonerated.
Beyond the system's fallibility is the moral dimension of capital punishment. People have long used the Bible to justify both sides of this issue. The Old Testament is full of the type of justice that gives credence to pro-death penalty advocates, while the compassion of Christ provides evidence for those against the death penalty. We're not theologians, but Chicago's own Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — once shared his view on his now-deleted personal Twitter account.
'It's time to end the death penalty,' he posted a decade ago.
That view is consistent with Catholic teaching from our recent popes, including Francis, who called capital punishment 'inadmissible,' and John Paul II, who viewed the death penalty as an option of last resort in the event that no other option to protect society existed, adding 'such cases are very rare if not practically nonexistent.'
Human justice is never perfect. That's why the death penalty is so dangerous.
When a punishment allows no room for error, the question remains: Why are we still willing to take that risk?