Indiana man put to death for the 2000 killing of a police officer is the states second execution in 15 years

An Indiana man convicted in the fatal shooting of a police officer in 2000 was executed Tuesday by lethal injection in the state’s second execution in 15 years.Benjamin Ritchie, 45, had been on Indiana’s death row since 2002, when he was convicted of killing Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a chase on foot.Ritchie was executed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Indiana Department of Corrections officials.IDOC said in a statement that the process started shortly after midnight, and Ritchie was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m.Ritchie’s last meal was from the Olive Garden, and he expressed love, support, and peace for his friends and family, according to the statement.Under state law, he was allowed five witnesses at his execution, which included his attorney Steve Schutte, who told reporters he had a limited view of the process.“I couldn’t see his face.

He was lying flat by that time,” Schutte said.“He sat up, twitched, laid back down.”The process was carried out hours after the U.S.

Supreme Court declined to take the case, exhausting all of Ritchie’s legal options to fight the death sentence.Dozens of people, both anti-death penalty advocates and supporters of Toney, stood outside the prison until early Tuesday.Indiana resumed executions in December after a year-long hiatus due to a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide.Prison officials provided photos of the execution chamber before Joseph Corcoran’s execution, showing a space that looks like an operating room with a gurney, fluorescent lighting, and an adjacent viewing room.

They’ve since offered few other details.Among 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that bars media witnesses.The other, Wyoming, has conducted one execution in the last half-century.The Associated Press and other media organizations filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking media access, but a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction last week th...