An Indiana man convicted within the 2001 rape and homicide of a teenage woman was executed by injection early Friday within the state’s third execution since resuming capital punishment final yr.
Roy Lee Ward, 53, was put to loss of life on the Indiana State Jail in Michigan Metropolis. Indiana Division of Correction mentioned in an announcement that the method began shortly after midnight and Ward was pronounced useless at 12:33 a.m.
Erin Hooley / AP
Ward’s final meal was from Texas Corral and included a hamburger. His final phrases, as reported by the Indiana Division of Correction had been “Brian goes to learn them,” however it was unclear precisely when he made the assertion.
He was convicted within the rape and homicide of 15-year-old Stacy Payne. Authorities mentioned Ward attacked the woman with a knife and dumbbell in her household’s residence close to Dale, about 30 miles east of Evansville. The crime rocked the small neighborhood of roughly 1,500 individuals.
Payne was stabbed repeatedly and died of her accidents a number of hours after the assault, French information company AFP notes, including that he was arrested on the scene whereas nonetheless holding a knife.
Ward had exhausted his authorized choices after greater than 20 years. His legal professional, Joanna Inexperienced, mentioned days earlier than the execution that Ward was “very remorseful” in regards to the crime.
Ward’s execution got here amid questions on Indiana’s dealing with of the highly effective sedative pentobarbital. Final yr, state officers ended a 15-year pause on executions, saying they’d been capable of receive medicine utilized in deadly injections that had been unavailable for years.
The Indiana Division of Correction mentioned it had obtained “sufficient pentobarbital to comply with the required protocol” for Ward’s execution. Ward’s attorneys had raised considerations about using the drug and the way the state saved it, together with temperature points.
Amongst 27 states with loss of life penalty legal guidelines, Indiana is considered one of two that bar media witnesses to executions. Ward’s witness listing included attorneys and religious advisers.
His case trailed by the courts for greater than 20 years.
Ward was convicted of the crimes in 2002 and sentenced to loss of life. However after the Indiana Supreme Courtroom overturned the conviction and ordered a brand new trial, he pleaded responsible in 2007. A decade later, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom declined to listen to the case. In 2019, he sued Indiana, searching for to cease all pending executions.
Final month, the Indiana Supreme Courtroom declined to remain the execution and Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ward’s clemency bid.
The sufferer’s members of the family mentioned they had been prepared for justice to be carried out, remembering Payne as an honor scholar and cheerleader with an affect past her brief life.
“Now our household gatherings are not entire, holidays nonetheless empty. Birthdays are unhappy reminders of what we misplaced,” her mom Julie Wininger informed the parole board final month. “Our household has endured emotional devastation.”
Ward skipped the parole board interview for his clemency bid, saying he did not wish to drive the sufferer’s household to journey to the jail and that he could not all the time say what he meant. Attorneys say Ward was not too long ago recognized with autism spectrum dysfunction, which affected his skill to speak.
One in every of his religious advisers, Deacon Brian Nosbusch, mentioned forward of the execution that Ward had thought deeply about his actions.
“He is aware of he did it,” Nosbusch mentioned. “He is aware of it was horrendous.”
