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Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Yahoo
Court sets 'tentative' execution date for Southern Indiana murderer Roy Lee Ward
EVANSVILLE – The Indiana Supreme Court has set a "tentative" execution date for Roy Lee Ward: the Southern Indiana murderer who has sat on death row off and on for more than 20 years after killing Spencer County teenager Stacy Payne in 2001. In an order issued just after 11 a.m. Monday, Chief Justice Loretta Rush preliminarily scheduled Ward to die on Oct. 10. Whether that will happen is still up in the air. The preliminary order comes a little less than two weeks after Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a motion on June 27 asking the state supreme court to set an execution date. Ward's death will only go forward if the court approves the motion. Rush and the other justices apparently issued the order Monday to remove an administration roadblock. Rush wrote they did so "out of respect for all parties with important responsibilities." The court was only performing its "administrative task." The actual execution will depend on both the court's ruling and what actions Ward's attorneys take to try to stop the lethal injection. Their options include everything from federal litigation to asking Gov. Mike Braun to commute Ward's sentence. "... Other state and federal officials must work backwards from that date to fulfill their own important duties related to an ordered execution," Rush wrote. "... The Department of Correction must carryout the execution, navigating all the logistics that entails." One of the biggest? Whether Indiana will actually have its new lethal injection drug on hand. In early June, Braun announced the state had exhausted its supply of pentobarbital, the drug it has used to carry out two executions since December: those of Joseph Corcoran and Benjamin Ritchie. "We've got to address the broad issue of, what are other methods, the discussion of capital punishment in general," Braun told reporters at the Indiana Statehouse on June 3. "And then something that costs, I think, $300,000 a pop that has a 90-day shelf life, I'm not going to be for putting it on the shelf and then letting them expire." Ward fatally stabbed Payne, a 15-year-old Heritage Hills cheerleader and honor roll student, while she was at home in Dale with her younger sister on July 11, 2001. He knocked on their door and lied to Stacy, claiming he was looking for a lost dog. Police responded to a 911 call from Stacy's sister and reportedly found Ward still holding the knife he used in the murder. Payne played in the high school band, attended youth group at St. Joseph Catholic Church, and had recently started a job at Jenk's Pizza. A jury sentenced Ward to death in 2002, only to have that overturned on appeal. In 2007, another jury came to same conclusion, and that conviction stuck. Ward's attorneys have spent the years since filing numerous motions and lawsuits to delay his execution. Indiana's lack of a consistent lethal injection drug supply has slowed things down as well. The executions of Corcoran and Ritchie were the first in the state since 2009. This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: When will Roy Lee Ward be executed?
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: Last-minute bill amendments must stop
The 2025 Indiana state legislative session lasted from Jan. 27 through April 24, the better part of three months. Yet, on the last day of the session lawmakers had to vote on bills with substantial last-minute amendments thrown in. The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported on the frustration felt by Sen Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, over late adjustments to an education 'deregulation' measure that was championed by his own party and won ultimate approval. 'This is bull crap,' Young lamented. 'You've got a 116-page bill. You've got 30 minutes to read it. We should have more time than that. 'I am so mad about this. Our one job is to do what's right for our constituents, and we can't do it if we don't have a chance to read the dang bill.' Here's an even more troubling example. On April 23, the day before the legislative session ended, Republicans buried deep in pages 181 and 182 of the 215-page budget bill an amendment giving Gov. Mike Braun control over membership of the Indiana University Board of Trustees. What does the IU board of trustees have to do with the budget? Not much, but state Legislature rules that amendments should be germane to the main subject matter of a bill don't apply to sweeping biennial budget legislation since, ostensibly, all state issues — including funding of state universities — are germane to state finances. That exception enabled Braun and fellow Republican culture warriors to use the budget bill to position themselves for control at the highest level over the state's 'liberal' bastion of higher education. The sneaky, underhanded way Republicans accomplished this left no time for proper legislative review, let alone public awareness and comment. The Legislature shouldn't be doing business this way, nefariously sneaking related — or unrelated — law into bills on an expiring clock. Yes, the legislative process demands compromise and a certain amount of back scratching to pass new laws. But this tactic sidesteps the rigorous process of vetting so fundamental to the development of sound public policy. Forty-four states have an imperfect solution to the problem — line-item vetoes that enable the governor to strike specific portions of legislation. When wielded ethically, governors can erase last-minute amendments or 'riders' before signing a bill into law. In 2005 in West Virginia, where the state constitution forbids more than one topic per bill, then-Gov. Joe Manchin vetoed a line item in a local parks boards bill. The last-minute rider to the bill would have made English the official language of the state. Manchin supported the English language idea but realized it should have no place in the parks board bill, so he struck it before signing the parks board legislation into law. Indiana is one of the six states that don't allow line-item vetoes by the governor. There are some good reasons for that, primarily that it puts too much power in the hands of the state executive to undo the efforts of the legislative branch. Of course, in the case of the state budget bill, Braun wouldn't have invoked a line-item veto anyway. It handed him a responsibility that he, no doubt, very much wanted. Braun almost certainly worked behind closed doors with GOP legislators on the strategy of adding it to the budget bill. In the end, it's just another example of why a state government supermajority of one party simultaneously controlling both chambers and the governor's office encourages abuse of power. Instead of empowering the governor to veto line items, perhaps a better way to bring substantial last-minute amendments under control would be to change the deadline for the final form of legislation to be posted online for review. Currently, it's just 24 hours. Extending it to seven days would enable legislators and their constituents to review and debate changes ahead of the final vote. Short of that, Hoosier must call on their legislators to behave ethically rather than pulling last-minute shenanigans to fool elected colleagues and hoodwink the voters who elected them.
