Beech Grove Cop Killer Begs for Clemency
BEECH GROVE, Ind.–Twenty-five years ago Beech Grove Police Officer William Toney lost his life, shot in the neck during a chase by Benjamin Ritchie, 44, who faces execution by lethal injection May 20. Monday, Ritchie asked the Indiana Parole Board to recommend sparing his life.
In a one-hour hearing, he testified that he is a changed man.
“I ruined my life and other people’s lives, and I’m so sorry for that night,” he said during the hearing. “I was just a kid bent on blowing his own life up and everybody else’s life around me.”
His lawyers have said in previous attempts to help their client avoid death that he suffered from impulse control issues, the result of partial fetal alcohol syndrome. Monday’s hearing was different. Ritchie had the chance to make his case in his own words.
“I try to do positive things now. I was so bent on destroying other people’s lives. The only thing I can do is try to give back now,” he said.
With the execution a likelihood, the state having executed a man last year, the first in 15 years, the board will take the testimony and fact they’ve gathered and make a recommendation to Gov. Mike Braun, who will make the decision as to whether Ritchie’s life is spared.
The execution would take place at the state prison in Michigan City, which is where the hearing was held.
Beech Grove Cop Killer Begs for Clemency was originally published on ronewibc.staging.go.ione.nyc
