Indiana death row inmate asks US Supreme Court to halt execution

An Indiana death row inmate set to be executed in less than 2 weeks is asking for the nation's highest court to intervene.

Lawyers for Benjamin Ritchie wrote that their client was "sentenced to death based on inaccurate information" in a May 7 filing to the U.S. Supreme Court. They are asking for the execution to be paused so that Ritchie can pursue appeals related to ineffective assistance of counsel at the time of his trial.

Ritchie was convicted in 2002 of the murder of a Beech Grove police officer. According to court documents, then-20-year-old Ritchie was fleeing police in a stolen van on Sept. 29, 2000, when he pulled into someone's yard and ran from the vehicle. Officer William Toney followed on foot. Ritchie turned around and shot him 4 times. The officer was declared dead at the scene.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

At the 2002 trial, Ritchie's defense attorneys did not present evidence that their client has a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The developmental disability is associated with cognitive impairment and poor impulse control. His current attorneys argue that the diagnosis, which has since been confirmed, would have been considered a mitigating factor during sentencing.

Instead, prosecutors told the jury that he had no such diagnosis, and Ritchie was sentenced to death.

"Ritchie's attorneys allowed the State to create a materially false impression with the jury," the May 7 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court reads.

The appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court comes after the Indiana Supreme Court rejected Ritchie's bid for the state to stay his execution on April 15. That ruling ended his ability to further appeal his case in nearly all courts.

The 4 Indiana justices' opinions were evenly split. Two wrote that new evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome was "irrelevant," and two wrote they would at least delay the execution to examine the evidence. The court's fifth justice, Mark Massa, earlier recused himself from the case because he worked for the prosecution during Ritchie's 2002 trial.

Ritchie needed the majority of the court to side with him to succeed, so the state's original sentence remained.

In the May 7 filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ritchie's legal team characterizes Indiana's decision as a misinterpretation of federal law.

The U.S. Supreme Court only agrees to hear between 100 and 150 cases of the more than 7,000 submitted for its consideration each year, according to the federal government's estimation.

If the U.S. Supreme Court does not grant a stay, Gov. Mike Braun could also halt the execution by granting clemency.

Ritchie's scheduled execution date is May 20.

In December 2024, Indiana executed an inmate for the 1st time in 15 years. Joseph Corcoran, 49, died from a lethal injection on Dec. 18, 2024, in the Indiana State Prison.

Source: Indianapolis Star, Staff, May 10, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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