Attorneys for death row inmate Roy Lee Ward and the Indiana Attorney General’s Office are sparring before the state’s highest court over whether Ward’s tentative execution date should stand.
Ward’s defense team, in a July 30 filing, urged the Indiana Supreme Court to “recall” the tentative Oct. 10 date based on “new evidence,” which includes sworn affidavits of witnesses to Benjamin Ritchie’s execution in May, as well as postmortem toxicology reports from both Ritchie and another executed inmate, Joseph Corcoran.
But the state argued Monday that Ward has no valid legal grounds to delay his execution, and that his latest claims are “irrelevant” and belong in a different court.
Ward raped and murdered 15‑year‑old Stacy Payne in her Spencer County home in 2001.
Witnesses at Ritchie’s execution described seeing the inmate “violently” lifting “his head and shoulders off the gurney after the execution drug, pentobarbital, was administered,” according to court filings.
The defense team filed five witness affidavits: one from Ritchie’s spiritual advisor, who was present in the execution chamber; another from Ritchie’s friend, who viewed the execution from the condemned’s witness room; and three from Indiana public defender staff — two of Ritchie’s attorneys and a mitigation specialist.
“Mr. Ritchie violently lifted his head and shoulders off the gurney after the execution drug was administered. That should not happen when non-expired and uncontaminated pentobarbital is properly administered,” defense attorneys wrote. “Witnesses described the movement as ‘violent,’ ‘abrupt,’ and ‘unnatural’ — inconsistent with a properly carried out execution using a barbiturate.”
The defense argued the movement indicated possible contamination, degradation or improper administration of the drug.
“Such movements indicate that Mr. Ritchie may have experienced pain and distress due to either the use of expired or contaminated drugs or the failure to properly administer the execution drug,” Ward’s attorneys wrote.
The Attorney General’s Office countered in a Monday afternoon filing that Ward has not given the court a “legally cognizable reason to deny the State’s motion” for the execution to go ahead as planned and that “all of his complaints are irrelevant to this Court’s legal duty to set an execution date.”
“Ultimately,” state attorneys continued, “Ward’s assemblage of various complaints about a different inmate’s execution, public-record requests, and government-procurement transparency have nothing to do with whether this Court should follow the law and set his execution date.”
Ward argues for a delay
Ward’s attorneys additionally accused the state of withholding critical information about the Indiana Department of Correction’s lethal injection drugs, specifically “whether they are expired, how they are transported and stored, or their potency and sterility.”
Despite public records requests — several of which are not processed — the defense team said there has been “no disclosure regarding the amount of the drug” in DOC’s possession” and called the lack of transparency “shocking and unfair.”
Ward’s filing also pointed to Senate Enrolled Act 5, an Indiana transparency law effective July 1 that requires certain state contracts to be posted online.
Ward’s team contends that DOC “must post a bid for proposals to obtain the drugs necessary for Mr. Ward’s execution” and take “the thirty days to solicit proposals from contractors to ensure transparency and cost effectiveness.”
Gov. Mike Braun said recently that Indiana does not currently have usable lethal injection drugs, and that state lawmakers should debate the future of capital punishment in Indiana in the 2026 session.
Braun said, too, that he doesn’t “intend to put another [dose] on the shelf” and risk expiration, although his office clarified that additional execution drugs would be ordered when required by the state supreme court.
In June, the governor disclosed that state officials spent $1.175 million on lethal injection doses over the past year — $600,000 of which was spent on drugs that expired before use. The cost has been between $275,000 and $300,000 per dose.
Ward’s attorneys asked the court to “deny the request to set an execution date, grant Ward’s request to file a Successive Post-Conviction Petition and remand for evidentiary proceedings in the post-conviction court.”
State makes case to proceed
In a separate filing, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office argued that Ward’s proposed claims are “meritless” and filed in the wrong forum. They held that post-conviction rules only allow challenges to the validity of a conviction or sentence, not on grounds involving civil-rights or the method of execution.
Even if such claims were permitted, the office argued, the remedies Ward seeks — like forcing public-records disclosures, halting his execution until he’s satisfied with execution drug testing, or altering the execution chamber — are not authorized under the rules for post-conviction proceedings and instead belong in a separate civil-rights lawsuit.
“Whether any of these claims have merit” is irrelevant, state attorneys wrote, because “none of them are legal reasons why this Court should not follow the mandates” of state law and set an execution date.
As such, the state said Ward’s witness affidavits and toxicology-related evidence are outside the scope of current proceedings.
And in response to Ward’s transparency claims, the state argued SEA 5 does not apply to lethal-injection procurement because “the identity of a supplier of lethal-injection drugs and any ‘information reasonably calculated’ to identify the supplier is confidential by law” under Indiana Code.
The state also criticized Ward’s public-records complaints, saying his “personal surprise or sense of indignation is simply not a legal argument.” The attorney general’s team doubled down that public-records disputes have “nothing at all to do with whether this Court should set an execution date.”
The state noted, too, that Ward still has judicial remedies under Indiana’s public-records law that he has not used, such as challenging records request denials or delays.
The attorney general’s office further rejected Ward’s complaints about limited audio and visual access for witnesses to his execution. They argued that neither the lack of sound between the execution chamber and witness room nor the viewing glass arrangement violates constitutional protections.
It’s now up to the Indiana Supreme Court to decide whether Ward’s execution date will be finalized or delayed for further litigation.
Justices previously indicated that an execution date remains pending until the court issues a definitive ruling.
Ward’s case has spanned more than two decades. His initial conviction and death sentence were overturned due to concerns about pretrial publicity, but a second jury sentenced him to death again in 2007 after he pleaded guilty. His appeals concluded in 2017.
Court records indicate Ward attacked Payne after she answered the door of her Dale, Indiana, home shortly after noon on July 11, 2001. Her younger sister heard screams and called 911. Police arrived within minutes and found Ward standing in the doorway of the home, holding a knife. He was arrested at the scene.
Payne, an honor roll student, later died from severe injuries.
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