Entries tagged with “Benjamin Ritchie”

Executions

Botched Executions

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Oct 08, 2025

Upcoming Executions Illustrate Persistent Themes and Concerns Around the Death Penalty

**October 9, 2025 UPDATE****: On October** **9****,** **2025****, just a week before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (****CCA****) grant­ed** **Robert Roberson** **a stay of exe­cu­tion and remand­ed his case to the dis­trict court for fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of his request for relief based upon relief offered in a sim­i­lar case,** ***Ex parte Roark******.*** **Like Mr. Roberson’s case,** ***Ex parte Roark*****, also involved a con­vic­tion based the now…

Jun 16, 2025

Governor Says Indiana Will Not Purchase More Lethal Injection Drugs, Invites Debate over Death Penalty

According to Governor Mike Braun (pic­tured), Indiana has deplet­ed the sup­ply of pen­to­bar­bi­tal it uses in its lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. Given that the last of the dos­es pur­chased in December 2024 expired and went unused, Gov. Braun does not intend to renew the state’s sup­ply. According to ear­li­er report­ing by the *Indiana Capital Chronicle*, the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) spent $900,000 on pen­to­bar­bi­tal in late 2024 in prepa­ra­tion for the execution of…

Botched Executions

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May 22, 2025

“Violent” Movements During Indiana Execution Raise Unanswered Questions

Benjamin Ritchie’s exe­cu­tion in Indiana on May 20, 2025, has raised new con­cerns about the use of pen­to­bar­bi­tal after defense coun­sel report­ed their client dis­played an unusu­al phys­i­cal reac­tion after being inject­ed with the drug. But because Indiana offi­cials bar media wit­ness­es from observ­ing exe­cu­tions, the pub­lic has no inde­pen­dent wit­ness reports on what tran­spired. Steve Schutte, an attor­ney for Mr. Ritchie, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle that Mr. Ritchie…