Clemency hearing resumes for killer of Beech Grove police officer

INDIANAPOLIS -- Benjamin Ritchie is hoping to avoid execution next week for the September 2000 killing of Officer William Toney of the Beech Grove Police Department.




Ritchie was convicted of fatally shooting Toney as the officer pursued the car thief through a neighborhood. The then 20-year-old emerged from around the corner of a house and shot Toney four times.




The Indiana Parole Board heard from Ritchie at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City last week as the condemned man asked for a death sentence commuted to life without parole so that he may counsel other inmates as to the error of his ways.




The continued clemency hearing at the Indiana Government Center South began this morning with testimony by Ritchie's sixth grade special education teacher that the offender was troubled as a child.




"He did not have the emotional tools he did not have the skills to make a different and acceptable decision," said John Mast who taught in the Metropolitan School District of Decatur Township.

The reason Ritchie lacked those skills was due to his exposure to his mother's alcohol and substance abuse during pregnancy, lead exposure as a baby and beatings and maltreatment as a toddler, according to Megan Carter, the nation's only board certified forensic psychologist specializing in Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Disorder.




"Mr. Ritchie, because of his brain damage, was unable to process information quickly or make appropriate decisions in a complex situation he was unfamiliar with," Carter said. "He wasn't able to consider the future consequences of his behaviors. The neuropsychological testing shows he has these biological differences. The brain damage is there."




The Indiana Supreme Court ruled against Ritchie's appeal of his death sentence, determining that the diminished capacity issues raised by attorneys should have been filed earlier in the appeals process.




"They said its too late. Its too late," Public Defender Steve Schutte told the board. "But its too late because the trial attorneys didn't know what they were looking for. The failsafe in Indiana is supposed to be state post conviction. Unfortunately, the post state conviction attorneys also didn't know what they were looking for."








Carter told the board that research, diagnosis and treatment of FASD has evolved considerably since the time of Toney's murder.




This afternoon opponents of the Ritchie's clemency bid will testify.




Ritchie is not viewing today's hearing from Michigan City.




The board will make a non-binding recommendation to Indiana Gov. Mike Braun who has the final say at the state level as to Ritchie's pending execution on May 20.




Ritchie's attorneys have filed an appeal seeking intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court.





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