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A divided Indiana Supreme Court denied condemned murderer Benjamin Ritchie’s request to seek post-conviction relief and set his execution date for May 20, marking what would be the state’s second execution in six months after a 15-year hiatus.
Ritchie has been on Indiana’s death row since 2002 after being convicted for the fatal September 2000 shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer William Toney.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and former Gov. Eric Holcomb last fall requested the high court set an execution date for Ritchie.
Ritchie’s push for a delay was denied Tuesday because he was unable to persuade a majority of the court that he had a reasonable possibility of winning relief.
Among the court’s five justices, Geoffrey Slaughter and Derek Molter concurred in the decision to deny Ritchie’s motion and set the execution date. Justice Mark Massa did not participate in the decision.
Justice Christopher Goff agreed with the setting of the execution date but disagreed with denying Ritchie’s motion. He wrote that he would have temporarily stayed the execution date to consider Ritchie’s claim.
Ritchie argued that his post-conviction counsel failed to investigate whether his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present evidence at trial that he suffered from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.
“Ritchie submitted reports from four medical practitioners, each of whom concluded that he likely falls on the FASD spectrum, and Ritchie has now been evaluated by two experts,” Goff wrote. “Because Ritchie need only establish a ‘reasonable possibility’ that he is entitled to post-conviction relief for this Court to authorize a successive filing, I would order a stay to allow Ritchie to litigate whether his trial and post-conviction counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to investigate FASD.”
Goff concludes that “there’s no greater need to ensure effective counsel than in the final review of a capital case.”
Chief Justice Loretta Rush disagreed with the decision, stating that she would hold the state’s request to set an execution date in abeyance for a short time to receive and consider the FASD evaluations.
“All the evidence before us points to a strong likelihood that Ritchie suffered from FASD when he committed his crimes,” Rush wrote. “Holding in abeyance the State’s request to set an execution date for a short period of time is therefore necessary to receive and consider the evaluations that have recently been completed.”
Rush added: “We should not set a date for the most irrevocable of punishments without first ensuring that Ritchie was not denied the effective assistance of counsel.”
Indiana officials stepped up their efforts to carry executions last year after the state was able to obtain the lethal injection drug pentobarital following years of difficulty.
Under those reinvigorated efforts, Joseph Corcoran in December became the first person executed under Indiana’s capital punishment law in 15 years.
Indiana is one of 21 states that have the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
There are currently seven men on Indiana’s death row, including Ritchie.
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