INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has asked the state’s supreme court to set an execution date for Benjamin Ritchie — the man convicted of killing Beech Grove police officer William Toney on Sept. 29, 2000.
A motion filed by Rokita’s office on Friday indicates Ritchie has never alleged that he suffers from a “mental disease or defect that prevents him from understanding court proceedings, assisting his counsel or apprehending the justification for his sentence.”
The motion also claims no active stays preventing Ritchie’s execution are pending.
Court records indicate Ritchie was unanimously convicted of killing Toney more than 20 years ago. The jury also unanimously recommended a death sentence for Ritchie, which the trial court imposed on Oct. 15, 2002.
In the years after his conviction, Ritchie filed multiple appeals and a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. None of Ritchie’s appeals were granted, according to the motion Rokita’s office released on Friday.
Court documents indicate that, during Ritchie’s trial, it was determined that he and multiple other suspects stole a van on Sept. 29, 2000. After several hours passed, the van was located by BGPD.
Officers then initiated a pursuit with the suspects. The van ultimately came to a stop in an area home’s front yard. When the vehicle stopped, Ritchie bailed out of it and Toney pursued him.
Court records indicate Ritchie turned around while Toney was chasing him and fired four shots. Toney was killed during the shooting.
Previous reporting indicates the State of Indiana has not executed a person since 2009 when Matthew Eric Wrinkles was killed via lethal injection. Wrinkles was convicted of killing three people in 1994, according to IndyStar.
The death penalty is currently only available for murder in Indiana. Previous reporting shows that prosecutors can only seek the death penalty if they can prove offenders in question meet at least one of 18 “aggravating factors.”
When a death sentence is imposed in Indiana, it may be subjected to three levels of appellate review. Offenders may also request clemency from the state’s governor.
In 2015, the Indiana General Assembly found that the average cost of a death penalty trial in the Hoosier State was about $358,458, which is nearly 10 times more than the cost of trial and appeal for cases in which the prosecution seeks a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
