Inside the death chamber at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. (Photo provided by the Indiana Department of Correction)
Clemency hearings for Indiana death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie will take place in the coming weeks as the condemned man’s legal team fights to delay — or stop altogether — a pending May 20 execution.
Ritchie’s clemency petition, signed by the inmate on April 22, argued that he was “born with a severely damaged brain due to prenatal alcohol exposure.”
“His mother drank nearly every day during her pregnancy with Ben. She also smoked marijuana daily and took other drugs,” according to the filing. Lawyers additionally noted that a geneticist diagnosed Ritchie with Partial Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (pFAS), “meaning his brain damage limits Ben’s functioning to that similar to a person with intellectual disability.”
Ritchie’s team further pointed a recent ruling handed down by the Indiana Supreme Court in which justices “unanimously agreed that Ben has brain damage caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol and other toxins.” But the court was split, 2-2, on whether Ritchie should be allowed to present evidence “of the effect of that damage on his behavior” on the night of his crime.
With clemency, the governor — in tandem with Indiana’s Parole Board — can elect to commute a death sentence to life imprisonment or grant a pardon for a criminal offense.
The parole board announced two upcoming clemency hearings for Ritchie to consider his petition: one on May 5 at the Indiana State Prison, located in Michigan City; and another on May 12 at the Indiana Government Center in Indianapolis.
Both meetings are open to the public. The parole board will conduct a 10 a.m. interview with Ritchie at the state prison hearing. During the latter meeting, the board will hear testimony in favor of clemency from 9 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and testimony opposed to clemency from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
The developments follow a ruling issued earlier this month by Indiana Supreme Court justices to set a May 20 execution date for Ritchie, who was convicted in 2002 for killing a law enforcement officer from Beech Grove.
What to expect
The Indiana Constitution gives the governor exclusive authority to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons for all offenses — including capital crimes — except for treason and impeachment. The parole board is tasked by state law with assisting in that process.
The five-member board, specifically, is responsible for conducting an investigation into the merits of a clemency petition.
Three clemencies have been granted in Indiana since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Shortly after an execution date is set, the board sets a schedule for the filing of clemency petition; submission of supporting materials; an interview and psychiatric examination of the death row inmate; a public hearing; and a public announcement of the parole board’s recommendation.
READ: Benjamin Ritchie Petition for Clemency
Members of the press and the general public are permitted to attend the inmate’s interview.
The subsequent public hearing typically takes place two or three days prior to the execution date and is held in the Indiana Government Center in Indianapolis.
Each side — the state and counsel for the death row inmate — is given 90 minutes to present their case for or against clemency. The parole board presides over the hearing, and frequently interjects with questions.
Once complete, board members individually submit their recommendations to the governor, who has final say over the matter.
Defense team seeks a stay
In a separate legal filing last week, Ritchie’s defense team petitioned the state supreme court for a new hearing to reconsider the inmate’s request for post-conviction relief.
They’re also seeking a 60-day stay to pause the execution altogether “to permit the full and fair consideration of the issues presented” in the rehearing request. Ritchie’s latest petition, attorneys emphasized, “has asserted unusually complex questions of fact and law that would be aided by oral argument or further briefing on the issues if the Court allows.”
The high court denied Ritchie any post-conviction relief in a decision issued April 15, following a series of exhausted appeals previously filed by the inmate and his legal team.
In 2004, former Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan commuted the death sentence of Darnell Williams to life imprisonment without parole on the basis that his co-defendant initially received a life sentence, making it “unjust” to execute only Williams.
Kernan, a Democrat, commuted another death sentence in 2005 of Michael Daniels, emphasizing doubts about Daniels’ personal responsibility for the crime and the quality of legal process leading to his death sentence.
The most recent was in 2009, when then-Gov. Mitch Daniels commuted the death sentence for Arthur Baird, who killed his pregnant wife and her parents in 1985. Although the parole board denied his petition for clemency, Mitch Daniels granted Baird clemency one day before the scheduled execution, in part citing questions about Baird’s sanity.
The former Republican governor additionally noted that life without parole in murder cases was not an option at the time of Baird’s sentencing; it became an option in 1994.
Included in the post-conviction filings were claims that his trial and post-conviction counsel “provided ineffective assistance” by not investigating Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and by failing to “analyze the effect of Ritchie’s childhood exposure to excessive amounts of lead.”
Additionally, counsel emphasized that Ritchie was only 20 years old at the time of the crime, and “recent developments in the law” require the state supreme court to consider his age at sentencing. Ritchie’s team held, too, that the state “engaged in prosecutorial misconduct” throughout his jury trial.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush, who disagreed with the decision to deny further post-conviction relief proceedings, said in her opinion that she believed evidence submitted to the court suggested “a strong likelihood” that Ritchie suffered from FASD when he murdered William Toney, the police officer, in 2000.
Read more: Indiana Supreme Court sets May 20 execution date for death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie
Rush noted that Ritchie had recently been evaluated by two FASD experts, and she preferred to hold off on an execution date so the court has more time to “receive and consider” the experts’ evaluations.
But Justices Derek Molter and Geoffrey Slaughter said in their opinion that “what Ritchie’s experts turned up is irrelevant.” The issue before the court “is not whether Ritchie suffered from FASD in 2000 or whether he does so today,” they said. Rather, the justices must decide whether Ritchie’s trial lawyers “were constitutionally ineffective during sentencing for failing to investigate the possibility that Ritchie suffered from FASD then.”
The affirming justices maintained that Ritchie was unable to show a “reasonable possibility” of relief.
Per court documents, the underlying crime began as a police pursuit of a stolen van on Sept. 29, 2000. Toney, the Beech Grove police officer, later pursued Ritchie on foot. Ritchie ultimately fired four shots at Toney, who did not survive the shooting.
The court set a Monday afternoon deadline for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office to respond to the defense counsel’s motions.
The Republican attorney general requested an execution date for Ritchie last fall.
Executions were put on hold for 15 years in Indiana until convicted killer Joseph Corcoran was put to death in December. The state paid $900,000 on execution drugs but won’t say how much was purchased.
Ritchie and six other men remain on the state’s death row at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.
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Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
