Indiana set to execute prisoner convicted of killing police officer in 2000
The State of Indiana was set to carry out its second execution in 15 years early Tuesday morning.
Benjamin Ritchie, 45, is scheduled to die by lethal injection "before the hour of sunrise" Tuesday morning. The execution will take place at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
Ritchie has been on death row for more than 20 years. He was convicted of shooting and killing Beech Grove police Officer Bill Toney during a foot chase in 2000, CBS affiliate WTTV in Indianapolis reported.
At a clemency hearing earlier this month, the Indiana Parole Board recommended the execution go forward, WTTV reported. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun received the recommendation from the board and allowed the execution to go ahead, the station reported.
WTTV reported Ritchie's attorneys had argued he had suffered brain damage due to fetal alcohol syndrome and mistreatment as a toddler.
Ritchie's attorneys have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to stop the execution.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Matthew Brookman denied a request by news media organizations to witness the execution, WTTV reported.
In December of last year, Joseph Corcoran, 49, was executed at the same prison. He had been convicted of killing for people, including his brother and his sister's fiancée.
Corcoran was the first person to be executed in Indiana in 15 years.
