Indiana: Roy Lee Ward executed – on World Day Against the Death Penalty, which calls for its abolition

Shortly after midnight in the US state of Indiana, 53-year-old Roy Lee Ward was executed with a lethal injection – an overdose of pentobarbital.

He was sentenced to death for abusing, raping and stabbing a 15-year-old girl to death in 2001. The Indiana Department of Justice said in a statement that the trial began shortly after midnight and that Ward was pronounced dead at 00:33.

His witness list included attorneys and counselors. Of the 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that prohibit media representatives from attending executions.

Ward was convicted of the crimes in 2002 and sentenced to death. However, after the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, he pleaded guilty in 2007.

A decade later, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In 2019, he sued Indiana to stop all pending executions. After more than two decades, Ward had exhausted all legal options.

His lawyer Joanna Green said a few days before the execution that Ward was deeply remorseful for his actions.

He waived the parole board hearing for his clemency petition because he did not want to force the victim’s family to travel to the prison and because he found it difficult to express himself properly.

Attorneys say Ward was recently diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder that affected his ability to communicate.

It was the third execution in the state since it resumed executions last year. The last execution of a death sentence in Indiana raised questions because the executed man’s reaction to the pentobarbital, as observed by witnesses, raised doubts about whether the execution went properly.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/execution-indiana-injection-9bf50dddd2cf881ae55396e1af244a33