Indiana and Texas: Benjamin Ritchie and Matthew Johnson executed within 18 hours
Two men were executed for murder in the USA on Tuesday – one in the state of Indiana, the other in Texas.
Indiana
Shortly after midnight early Tuesday morning, 45-year-old Benjamin Ritchie was executed by lethal injection in Michigan City in the US state of Indiana. He had been sentenced to death for killing a 32-year-old police officer in a gunfight following a carjacking in September 2000.
Ritchie’s attorneys pointed out that their client’s mother drank alcohol almost daily during her pregnancy with Ben. She also smoked marijuana daily and used other drugs, according to the documents. The attorneys also stated that a geneticist had diagnosed Ritchie with partial fetal alcohol syndrome.
This means that his brain damage limits his ability to function to the level of a person with mental retardation. Had this come up in the original trial, the lawyers said, a different sentence would have been likely.
“I love my family, my friends and all the support I’ve gotten,” Ritchie said in his final words. “I hope they all find peace.” At the recent clemency hearing, Ritchie described the night of the officer’s killing as a train pulling out of the station with no brakes.
“Several bad decisions led to the death of a man who should still be alive today if I had not committed this horrible act that night,” he said. “Not a night goes by that I don’t think about that person. I deeply regret that night.”
A vigil by opponents of the death penalty outside the prison was deliberately disrupted by the playing of loud music such as “Highway to Hell” and “Another one bites the Dust”. Activists expressed that even for supporters of the death penalty, an execution should not be a celebration, but still a tragic event.
Texas
On Tuesday evening, 49-year-old Matthew Johnson was executed with a lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital, in the US state of Texas. He was sentenced to death because 13 years ago to the day – on May 20, 2012 – he injured a 76-year-old woman who worked as an employee in a grocery store so severely during a robbery that she later succumbed to her injuries.
Johnson had doused his victim with lighter fluid and set her on fire, causing the woman to suffer severe burns. In court, he said he was unaware of his actions because he was completely “high” after consuming $100 worth of crack cocaine.
His lawyers told the jury that Johnson had a long history of drug addiction and had been sexually abused as a child. Johnson spent most of his childhood unsupervised, growing up primarily with his two older brothers and cousins, who introduced him to marijuana at age 7, according to Johnson’s clemency petition. In middle school, Johnson began using crack cocaine and PCP.
When the warden asked him at the start of the execution if he wanted to make a final statement, Johnson turned his head and looked through a nearby window at his victim’s relatives. “I ask for your forgiveness with all my heart. I never meant to hurt her.”
He added: “I pray that she is the first person I see when I open my eyes and that I will spend eternity with her.” – “I made wrong choices, and now I’m paying the consequences,” Johnson continued, who also asked for forgiveness from his wife and daughters.
Sources:
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/19/bill-toney-benjamin-ritchie-execution/83678833007/
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/05/20/matthew-johnson-nancy-harris-execution-texas/83726563007/