Benjamin Ritchie Executed for Killing Beech Grove Police Officer

Indiana death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie died by lethal injection inside the Indiana State Prison at 12:46 a.m. CDT, Tuesday, nearly 25 years after he shot and killed Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney. 

Ritchie’s final words were, “I love my family, my friends, and all the support I’ve gotten. I hope they all find peace,” according to the Indiana Department of Corrections. 

“He looked at us, smiled and waved and then he laid back down,” defense attorney Steven Shutte said. “A few seconds later his left fist was clenching, and his feet were moving for about 10 seconds. Then he sat up and violently twitched for about three seconds and laid back down.”

“And then about two or three minutes later, they close the blinds,” Shutte said. 

Hopes for a last-minute stay of execution were squashed just hours before the state put him to death, when the U.S. Supreme Court denied Ritchie’s petition to stay the execution.

“This is a foolish, senseless, agonizing waste of time and money. The man we executed today, though he himself acknowledges he committed a senseless crime 25 years ago, is not the same person who committed that crime,” Shutte said. 

Ritchie, 44, ordered the Tour of Italy from Olive Garden for his last meal. 

Dozens of retired police officers and members of the Beech Grove community gathered outside the prison before midnight. They raised blue glow sticks in unison as Toney’s family left the prison. 

“Justice was served,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement. “Today’s action ensures that justice was done to honor Officer Toney’s sacrifice for his community.”

Ritchie fatally shot Officer Toney in the neck while running from a stolen van on September 29, 2000. Toney died one day before his 33rd birthday, leaving behind a wife and two children: 18 months and four years old at the time. 

After Judge Patricia Gifford handed down the sentence in 2002, then-Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman called Ritchie a “mad dog”. Ritchie himself said the person he was at the time “needed to be put down” during his May 5, 2025, clemency hearing.

Ritchie’s defense argued brain damage caused by his mother’s drinking during pregnancy led to his criminal behavior, and he’d changed for the better over the course of two decades in prison.

But it didn’t change the opinion of Toney’s surviving family, including his widow Dee Dee Toney Horen. 

“It’s time for this chapter of my story, our story, to be closed. It’s time to remember Bill’s life not his death. It is time,” she testified to the Indiana Parole Board on May 12. 

Following the Board’s recommendation, Gov. Mike Braun chose not to grant clemency. 

“Ben’s execution was inappropriate. Indiana executed a man with profound brain damage and developmental disabilities,” Deputy State Public Defender Mark Koselke said in a statement following the execution.

President of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police Rick Snyder celebrated the end to the decades-long saga, writing Ritchie’s execution “upholds the value of Bill’s life and the sacrifice that he and [his] family made.”

Several hours before the lethal dose of Pentobarbital was administered, a group from the Diocese of Gary held an hour-long prayer vigil in the parking lot outside the prison in protest. Rev. Richard Holy, the director of the Office of Pro-Life Activities, lead the ceremony, praying for Ritchie as well as the family, friends, and colleagues of Officer Toney.

Activists with the Indiana Abolition Coalition and Death Penalty Action remained outside the prison until the word came down that Ritchie was dead. 

“One killing does not solve another killing. It’s not about what a person did. It’s about what we do as a society,” Indiana Abolition Coalition’s David Frank said. 

“Benjamin Ritchie spent his final days reconnecting with those who love him and discovering the positive impact he had on many people’s lives,” Koselke said. “Tonight was the result of prioritizing finality over fairness.”

There were no members of the media allowed to personally witness the execution after a judge ruled against a group of news outlets, including WISH-TV’s parent company Circle City Broadcasting, requesting access. 

Legal challenges and the state’s inability to obtain the drugs necessary to carry out a lethal injection led to the years-long delay in his execution.

Ritchie marks the second Indiana execution in the last six months following a 15-year hiatus.