Latest news with #JosephCorcoran
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Indiana man set for execution in state's second since 2009
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer is set to receive a lethal injection early Tuesday in the state's second execution in 15 years. Benjamin Ritchie, 45, has been on death row for more than 20 years after being convicted in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a foot chase. Unless there's last-minute court action, Ritchie is scheduled to be executed 'before the hour of sunrise' at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to state officials. Indiana resumed executions in December after a yearslong hiatus due to scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide. Prison officials provided photos of the execution chamber in advance of Joseph Corcoran's execution, showing a space that looks like a sparse operating room with a gurney, fluorescent lighting, a floor drain and an adjacent viewing room. They have offered few other details about the process, including the time the executions take place. 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 have filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking media access. The execution Tuesday in Indiana is among 12 scheduled in eight states this year. Ritchie's execution and two others in Texas and Tennessee will be carried out 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 four shots 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. He was the first officer of the police department of roughly 30 officers to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty. The community of 14,000 people mourned the married father of two as a neighborly person who showed up to help others. When Toney died, 'Everyone of us involved, including Bill, had something stolen from them that they'll never get back," said Deputy Police Chief Tom Hurrle, who worked with him. Relatives spoke at a clemency hearing last week, urging for the execution to move forward. '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 have fought the death penalty 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 has struggled with decision-making. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005. 'He's finally come to have some coping skills. He's a different man,' said defense attorney Steven Schutte. Republican Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ritchie's clemency bid last week as the parole board recommended. Braun didn't explain his decision, but board members said Ritchie's case didn't meet the bar for commuting a sentence and cited a dozen violations during Ritchie's time in prison, including threatening others with violence. The Indiana Supreme Court denied a request to stop the execution, but two justices noted the jury didn't get accurate information about Ritchie's brain damage. Ritchie's attorneys are challenging that decision in federal court and have also filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. Disability rights advocates say Ritchie's brain damage should exclude him from the death penalty. Ritchie's 'capacity to fully appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct' was "impaired at the time of his crime,' Dr. Megan Carter, who also testified before the parole board, said in a statement. Expressing regret and awaiting execution Attorneys say Ritchie has changed during his more than two decades behind bars and 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 regrets 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. 'That was her right. That was his family's right.' Ritchie has spent his last days getting visits from friends and family. Under state law, he's allowed up to five witnesses at his execution, which will include attorneys and friends. '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.' ___ Tareen reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer John O'Connor contributed from Springfield, Illinois.
Associated Press
19-05-2025
- Associated Press
Indiana man set for execution in state's second since 2009
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man convicted in the 2000 killing of a police officer is set to receive a lethal injection early Tuesday in the state's second execution in 15 years. Benjamin Ritchie, 45, has been on death row for more than 20 years after being convicted in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a foot chase. Unless there's last-minute court action, Ritchie is scheduled to be executed 'before the hour of sunrise' at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to state officials. Indiana resumed executions in December after a yearslong hiatus due to scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide. Prison officials provided photos of the execution chamber in advance of Joseph Corcoran's execution, showing a space that looks like a sparse operating room with a gurney, fluorescent lighting, a floor drain and an adjacent viewing room. They have offered few other details about the process, including the time the executions take place. 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 have filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking media access. The execution Tuesday in Indiana is among 12 scheduled in eight states this year. Ritchie's execution and two others in Texas and Tennessee will be carried out 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 four shots 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. He was the first officer of the police department of roughly 30 officers to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty. The community of 14,000 people mourned the married father of two as a neighborly person who showed up to help others. When Toney died, 'Everyone of us involved, including Bill, had something stolen from them that they'll never get back,' said Deputy Police Chief Tom Hurrle, who worked with him. Relatives spoke at a clemency hearing last week, urging for the execution to move forward. '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 have fought the death penalty 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 has struggled with decision-making. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005. 'He's finally come to have some coping skills. He's a different man,' said defense attorney Steven Schutte. Republican Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ritchie's clemency bid last week as the parole board recommended. Braun didn't explain his decision, but board members said Ritchie's case didn't meet the bar for commuting a sentence and cited a dozen violations during Ritchie's time in prison, including threatening others with violence. The Indiana Supreme Court denied a request to stop the execution, but two justices noted the jury didn't get accurate information about Ritchie's brain damage. Ritchie's attorneys are challenging that decision in federal court and have also filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. Disability rights advocates say Ritchie's brain damage should exclude him from the death penalty. Ritchie's 'capacity to fully appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct' was 'impaired at the time of his crime,' Dr. Megan Carter, who also testified before the parole board, said in a statement. Expressing regret and awaiting execution Attorneys say Ritchie has changed during his more than two decades behind bars and 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 regrets 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. 'That was her right. That was his family's right.' Ritchie has spent his last days getting visits from friends and family. Under state law, he's allowed up to five witnesses at his execution, which will include attorneys and friends. '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.' ___ Tareen reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer John O'Connor contributed from Springfield, Illinois.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Indiana execution procedure gives ultimate punishment behind a veil of secrecy
A view of the death chamber from the witness room at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility shows an electric chair and gurney August 29, 2001 in Lucasville, Ohio. (Photo by) If the state of Indiana moves forward with the execution of convicted murderer Benjamin Ritchie on May 20 as planned, the Indiana news media — and by extension the public — will have no legal right to witness the proceeding. Our government will impose the ultimate punishment behind a veil of secrecy, with no objective witnesses. It's time for that to change. Indiana is one of 27 states with the death penalty, but one of only two that prohibits professional media witnesses to its executions. Under state law, execution witnesses are limited to a small group of people, including the warden, immediate family members of the victim, no more than five friends or relatives of the convicted person, the prison physician, and the prison chaplain. The Indiana Department of Correction's implementing policy explicitly states that the press 'shall not be permitted to witness the execution or be in the Execution Chamber.' Late last year, the state of Indiana executed death row inmate Joseph Corcoran, who was convicted of murdering four people in 1997. It marked the first time in 15 years that the state carried out the death penalty. Members of the news media were barred from witnessing Corcoran's death by lethal injection except for one. Indiana Capital Chronicle Senior Reporter Casey Smith witnessed Corcoran's execution, but was only able to attend after being specifically invited by Corcoran to take one of the seats that the statute reserves for an inmate's friends and relatives. Smith's access to Corcoran's execution was an outlier. When the state carries out Ritchie's execution later this month, journalists will be prevented from officially observing it. Death row inmate Joseph Corcoran executed for quadruple murder Earlier this week, attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Indiana's ban on media access to executions on behalf of The Associated Press, the Indiana Capital Chronicle, Gannett, WISH-TV, and TEGNA. Our lawsuit argues that the media ban violates the First Amendment. The public relies on journalists to serve as its eyes and ears, and Indiana's exclusion of the news media from witnessing executions goes beyond safety or security. Indiana's law and policy runs counter to the First Amendment and denies transparency to the public. When state lawmakers hold hearings to discuss health care, public education, or property tax reform, we expect members of the news media to be there to document the debate and help us understand what it all means. When a mayor announces plans for a new economic development project, we expect reporters to be there to ask questions about how much it will cost and how it will impact the local community. We should expect the same level of journalistic scrutiny when the government uses taxpayer dollars to carry out one of its gravest responsibilities — capital punishment. Media witnesses play a crucial role in ensuring that executions are carried out lawfully. Their reporting provides the public with an accounting of execution protocol and proceedings, from start to finish. If the lethal injections go as planned, news reporting from media witnesses can help the public have greater confidence in the process. If things don't go as planned and an inmate suffers a painful death at the hands of the state, journalists should be there to tell us about it. The need for media witnesses is arguably more important today, as states increasingly use controversial methods to end the lives of death row inmates, despite mounting concerns that they don't always work — or aren't always administered — as intended. Reporting by independent media witnesses has shown that prison officials sometimes have conflicting accounts. Indiana's execution of Corcoran last December was the first in which the state used only a single drug, pentobarbital, rather than a cocktail of drugs as it has done in the past. (I am currently representing Indiana Capital Chronicle in a lawsuit against the Indiana Department of Correction seeking access to the cost of the drug. The lawsuit recently prompted officials to disclose that the state paid $900,000 to acquire the drug, but the government continues to resist disclosing important related information, including how much of the drug was purchased.) Advocates for and against the death penalty will always debate its merit. But we should all agree that when the government carries out its ultimate punishment in the public's name, it cannot be allowed to do so in secret. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
ICC, other news outlets file lawsuit to open executions to press
Inside the death chamber at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. (Photo provided by the Indiana Department of Correction) The Indiana Capital Chronicle and four other news entities filed a lawsuit Monday evening challenging the state's prohibition against press witnesses for state executions. Alongside the Associated Press, Circle City Broadcasting, Gannett and Tegna, the outlets allege that the ban violates the First Amendment and limits public accountability. Circle City Broadcasting owns WISH-TV, Gannett owns the Indianapolis Star and eight other outlets, and Tegna owns WTHR. Reporters from all five entities have covered portions of the case and the Associated Press regularly covers executions nationwide. Indiana is one of only two states with the death penalty that prohibits media witnesses. Senior Reporter Casey Smith witnessed December's state execution of Joseph Corcoran — via the condemned man's guest list. The federal government carries out executions at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, which allows for up to ten news representatives. Relevant background State law limits attendance at executions to: the warden, a warden's designated assistant, the prison physician, another physician, a spiritual advisor, a prison chaplain, five friends or relatives of the inmate and eight members of the victim's family. The last category is further limited to family members who are 18 years of age or older and are either a spouse, child, parent, grandparent or sibling. News reporters, meanwhile, are granted access to a designated area but not permitted to directly witness the state's actions. Need to get in touch? Have a news tip? CONTACT US 'Indiana's statutory prohibition on providing access to news reporters at its executions has limited the public's understanding of these proceedings,' the filing says. In 1985, the Indiana execution of William Vandriver went awry, but public details were scant. Vandiver was electrocuted four times over 17 minutes before he was pronounced dead — 'outrageous,' his attorney said. Indiana's 1996 execution of Tommy Smith by lethal injection had a 35-minute delay due to a misplaced catheter. Corcoran's December execution was the state's first attempt in 15 years. With the exception of Smith, news media reported on the event from the prison parking lot. Another execution is slated May 20 for Benjamin Ritchie, who was convicted of killing a Beech Grove law enforcement officer in 2002. Five other men are waiting on death row. 'Plaintiffs each intend to cover future executions scheduled in Indiana, including by sending their reporters to directly observe proceedings in the execution chamber. Plaintiffs intend to publish the observations of their reporters who witness those in-person proceedings,' the lawsuit says. As such, the ICC and the other news organizations urge the federal court to rule that the prohibition is unconstitutional and issue an injunction against enforcement. Attorneys with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press are representing the five news entities. ECF 1 - Complaint SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Going to court is never fun, but here's why we sued the state
Little is known about how Indiana acquired pentobarbital, a drug that state officials plan to use to restart executions for the first time in more than a decade. (Getty Images) The Indiana Capital Chronicle sued the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) last week — a move we as an outlet don't take lightly. But transparency in the spending of taxpayer dollars is a core belief not just for journalists, but society as a whole. In this case, we sought the cost of the drug the state acquired to conduct the recent execution of convicted killer Joseph Corcoran. The cost of the pentobarbital shouldn't be treated any differently than the salary of a judge, the cost of a construction contract, or how much state officials spend on travel. Citizens deserve to know the basic cost of operations, and the death penalty should not be an exception. In fact, the taking of a person's life should be held to the highest standards. We sought the cost soon after the state announced it had acquired the drug last June. It had been years since the state could conduct an execution because an intense focus on drug manufacturers and suppliers had made it hard to get the drugs. That focus led lawmakers to block information about manufacturers and suppliers from public access after a lawsuit was filed. In fact, the state lost that legal battle until it retroactively enacted a law. That process was distasteful, but the law is the law, and we did not seek the name of the supplier or manufacturer. We asked only for the cost of the drug. That's it. All the IDOC had to do was provide an invoice with large black boxes redacting other information beside the cost. But the administration of former Gov. Eric Holcomb refused. It clung to the law, which includes confidentiality for 'information reasonably calculated to lead to the identity' of the people or company behind the drugs. The law specifically mentions examples, such as a name, address or tax identifier. Cost is not included. And frankly, the idea that a dollar figure could 'reasonably' be used to find the manufacturer or supplier is a ridiculous stretch. The irony is that while the Republican administration is fighting this request tooth and nail, other GOP members — including Attorney General Todd Rokita, new Gov. Mike Braun and more — want individual terminated pregnancy reports released as public records. These abortion records include a lot of personal information about people who receive abortions. In the past they have been released, but redacting identifying information — which is exactly what we want in the execution case. But when lawmakers banned abortion with few exceptions, the Indiana Department of Health sought advice about whether the reports could be used to identify a woman, especially in smaller counties. Abortions have dropped from thousands a year to just dozens. Currently, the IDOH puts out an aggregate report every three months but won't release the individual records. That also led to a lawsuit, which anti-abortion advocates lost. The issue is now being fought at the executive and legislative levels. So, why do Republicans want abortion records released but not death penalty records? In the past, Indiana's public access counselor could have weighed in and guided the parties in our dispute to a resolution. But lawmakers last year placed new restrictions on the counselor's interpretations when issuing opinions. Specifically, the counselor now can only use the public access law itself and court rulings to issue opinions. Because this particular issue has not been decided by a court, the counselor felt he couldn't make a firm ruling. And that's why we must go to court. Thankfully for us, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is handling the case for us. But if I were an average citizen, I would be forced to spend my paycheck to simply find out what my government is up to. It's time for everyone to live up to Indiana law, which says 'it is the public policy of the state that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees.' And we intend to hold them accountable to that. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
