Death row inmate will be executed Friday at prison in Michigan City

The detainee of the death corridor, Roy Lee Ward, will be executed on Friday at the Indiana state prison in Michigan City after having exhausted all the legal options to stop his execution.

Governor Mike Braun published a brief statement on September 29 that he will follow the recommendation of the Indiana conditional liberation committee to move forward with execution.

“After carefully examining the unanimous recommendation of the Indiana’s conditional liberation council, I decided to allow Roy Lee Ward’s execution to continue as scheduled for October 10,” Braun said in the press release.

The Indiana’s conditional liberation committee unanimously recommended that Braun Deny Ward at the request of switching his death sentence, wrote the President of the Indiana Liberations Council Gwendolyn Horth, wrote in a letter to Braun on September 24.

In July 2001, Ward went to Stacy Payne, 15, in Dale and convinced it to leave it inside, according to the judicial archives.

The younger sister of Stacy, who was napping upstairs, woke up with the stains of Stacy. His sister saw a man at the top of Stacy while Stacy pleaded for him to stop, according to the judicial archives.

After his sister called the police, the city marshal arrived and saw Ward standing in a door inside the house holding a knife. After handling Ward, the Marshal found Stacy on the ground in a huge blood pool, conscious and with traumatic injuries compatible with rape and stabs, according to the judicial archives.

The local hospital was not equipped to treat Stacy’s injuries, it was therefore transported by plane to the hospital of the University of Louisville, where she died about five hours after entering her house, according to the judicial archives.

After pleading guilty of rape and murder, Ward was sentenced twice to death – first by a jury of the county of Spencer in 2002, then by a jury of the county of Clay in 2007, after the Supreme Court of Indiana canceled the initial penalty.

The “brutal nature” of the rape and murder room committed against Payne was “strongly considered” by the board of directors, Horth wrote. During the public hearings of the Petition de Clémence de Ward, the Board of Directors learned that Stacy “was aware and aware throughout his attack and his last hours to live with the wounds that Roy Lee Ward inflicted on him,” Horth wrote.

“The nature and circumstances of Mr. Ward’s offense have been strongly examined by this advice to make our recommendation,” Horth wrote. “Curkey, this advice reviews thousands of cases per year, many of which have horrible facts, but the victimization of Stacy Payne has stood out.”

The Board of Directors received the Petition of Clémence de Ward to commute his death sentence to a prison sentence without parole on September 5, Horth wrote.

Ward was to be interviewed by the board of directors on September 19, but the board of directors received an e-mail in advance that Ward refused the interview but still wanted to continue the leniency, Horth wrote.

“Without being able to discuss the facts and circumstances of the offense with Mr. Ward, as we often do in the Clemence procedure, the board of directors has not been able to obtain more information to understand what could have led to these horrible actions,” Horth wrote.

The board of directors held a public hearing on September 22 and heard the Ward’s legal team and the State. Ward’s legal team told the Board of Directors that Ward had been poorly diagnosed with an anti -social personality disorder and should have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, Horth wrote.

Ward’s lawyer said the biggest difference between the two diagnoses is that someone suffering from antisocial personality disorder does not feel remorse, but a person with autism spectrum disorder feels remorse, Horth. His legal team said Ward had expressed remorse in conversations with his lawyers, she wrote.

In Ward’s second trial, his lawyer for the trial described him as a “severe psychopath”, based on pre-process psychiatric evaluations, wrote Horth.

During the public hearing, Indiana Capital Chronicle reported that Ward Michelle Law’s defense lawyers and Larry Komp spent around 80 minutes before the parole commission.

“Roy is not a psychopath,” said Law. “His own lawyers described him as such before … But Roy has feelings, and he himself admitted that he had disabilities and problems for which he wanted help.”

But, wrote Horth, the board of directors gave “little weight” to one or the other diagnosis. The diagnosis does not provide details on the reasons why the crime has happened, she wrote.

Stacy’s family testified before the board of directors of the anxiety that remains, reported the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

“We will never hear her voice, never has the joy of seeing her become the incredible woman she was supposed to be. The sorrow is not only breaking, that remodel who we are, and we cannot go back,” said her mother, Julie Wininger, through tears. “We must learn to exist in a world without stacy.”

By examining the Petition de Clémence de Ward, the Board of Directors read the Documents of the trials with Jury of Ward, the appeal and the post-Condamnation relief procedure, as well as an enlarged request for executive Clémence with Ward’s lawyers on his psychological assessments.

Ward has juvenile and adult criminal offenses, Horth wrote, in particular public indecency and harassment and probation as a minor. As an adult, Ward has “extremely long” criminal history – with crimes flowing from Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri – including battery, flight, burglary, infringement, drug offenses, indecent exposure and public indecency, she wrote.

As a detainee, Ward has been reported 14 times for incidents, including sexual driving, the use of a controlled substance and a battery against a offender, Horth wrote.

“This driving model reflects its criminal history and tends to communicate that Mr. Ward is still in difficulty with any affliction that he behaves in this way,” Horth wrote.

Ward’s legal team continues to challenge the use of the Pentobarbital drug in executions, citing evidence that it can cause flash pulmonary edema and drowning sensations, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported.

They indicate that the execution of Benjamin Ritchie in May, when witnesses had seen the detainee “who would go upwards, as if to do so, in a spasm” after the injection, a reaction which, according to them, is “incompatible with the normal effects of the non -adult pentobarbital”, reported the capital of Indiana.

In the federal disputes in the process deposited by Ward, the Office of the Attorney General of Indiana confirmed last week that the Ministry of Correction had obtained three series of Pentobarbital.

The director of the Indiana state prison, Ron Neal, said in a statement under the oath submitted to the northern district judge that two of these sets would expire at the end of October and that the third set expired in March 2026.

akukulka@post-trib.com