The Indiana Supreme Court officially set death row inmate Roy Lee Ward’s execution for Oct. 10. Photo by Joe Raedle, Newsmakers.

By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court denied death row inmate Roy Lee Ward’s latest appeal on Wednesday and officially set his execution for Friday, Oct. 10.

In its ruling, the court rejected arguments that the state’s lethal injection process poses a constitutional risk and said Ward had not met the legal burden to reopen his case.

Roy Lee Ward

“Ward does not seek relief from his death sentence but only from the method by which that sentence is carried out,” the justices wrote. “Because he seeks to litigate his claims only in post-conviction proceedings and none of them attack the validity of his convictions or the sentence imposed, he has not established a reasonable possibility that he is entitled to post-conviction relief.”

Without a stay — which would effectively pause the execution to allow for additional court proceedings — the justices said its their duty to “complete our administrative task to set an execution date.”

Ward’s death sentence is now scheduled to be carried out at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City before sunrise on Oct. 10. The court previously labeled the execution date tentative while justices weighed additional filings.

Larry Komp, an attorney on Ward’s legal team, said the inmate’s counsel “will pursue available remedies as we seek to explore the outrageously costly drug that from all witness accounts did not work last time.”

Execution Date Set

Ward, 44, was sentenced to death for the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne in Spencer County. His case has played out through state and federal courts for more than two decades. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2017.

Indiana justices said Ward may still have “other, viable avenues in state or federal court.” He can also seek clemency from Gov. Mike Braun.

Ward’s scheduled execution would be Indiana’s third in less than a year, following the December execution of Joseph Corcoran and the May execution of Benjamin Ritchie.

The state’s use of pentobarbital in the last two executions has drawn increasing scrutiny.

Witnesses reported irregular movements during Ritchie’s execution. No members of the media were permitted to witness, however.

Braun said recently that Indiana does not currently have usable lethal injection drugs, and that state lawmakers should debate the future of capital punishment in Indiana in the 2026 session.

The governor said that while he doesn’t “intend to put another (dose) on the shelf” and risk expiration, his office confirmed that additional execution drugs would be ordered when necessary.

In June, the governor disclosed that state officials spent $1.175 million on lethal injection doses over the past year — $600,000 of which was spent on drugs that expired before use. The cost has been between $275,000 and $300,000 per dose.

Defense Team Presses For Drug Details

Ward’s attorneys have filed multiple public records requests with DOC seeking information about what drugs the state intends to use in Ward’s execution, including “whether they are expired, how they are transported and stored, or their potency and sterility.”

But the defense team said there has been “no disclosure regarding the amount of the drug in DOC’s possession” and called the lack of transparency “shocking and unfair.”

In his most recent filings, Ward’s attorneys argued that he should be allowed to pursue a successive post-conviction petition to challenge Indiana’s lethal injection process, citing the problems reported during Ritchie’s execution.

His legal team contended that the Indiana Department of Correction’s refusal to provide public records on the drugs it intends to use “obstructs his ability to challenge the constitutionality of his execution.”

Ward’s counsel also pointed to a separate 2021 case, Isom v. State, noting that method-of-execution claims are not legally ripe until an execution is scheduled.

“Ward has not exhausted all of his available remedies and has properly and timely raised a methods argument that this Court recognized is only legally cognizable now,” his attorneys wrote in an Aug. 18 brief.

The state countered that Ward’s claims were irrelevant to whether an execution date should be set.

The court agreed, concluding that while Ward “may have other, viable avenues in state or federal court to seek relief on his claims,” they were not grounds for a successive post-conviction petition.

All five justices concurred in denying Ward’s request, though Justice Christopher Goff dissented in part, writing that the execution date should not be finalized until DOC responds to Ward’s records requests.

“This Court should set an execution date after the records request is resolved, so Ward can effectively raise any constitutional issues,” Goff wrote.

He added that allowing the execution to proceed without disclosure “not only prevents the public from having robust, informed, and honest discussion about the death penalty, it also makes public oversight impossible.”

Komp, Ward’s lawyer, said the defense team “remain(s) hopeful that Indiana precedent will be respected, as pointed out by the dissent.”