Benjamie Ritchie is scheduled to be executed on May 20, 2025 for the murder of Officer William Toney.
Credit: WTHR
Benjamin Ritchie shot and killed Beech Grove Police Ofc. Bill Toney on Sept. 29, 2000.
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Supreme Court has set May 20, 2025, as the execution date for the man who murdered Beech Grove Police Ofc. Bill Toney in 2000.
Benjamin Ritchie was convicted in 2002, and the jury recommended he receive the death penalty. Ritchie has appealed his conviction and sentence for decades since.
In late 2024, Indiana performed its first execution in 15 years. Immediately after, the state asked to set an execution date for Ritchie.
In an order, issued on April 15, the Indiana Supreme Court denied Ritchie's attempt to appeal his execution and granted the state's request to set an execution date.
Read the full order setting Ritchie's execution date below:
Credit: Beech Grove Police Department
Beech Grove Police Ofc. Bill Toney was shot and killed in the line of duty on September 29, 2000.
A long wait for justice
Dee Dee Horen has waited almost 24 years for justice for her first husband, Toney, who was killed in the line of duty.
Horen received a phone call from the Indiana Attorney General's Office on June 26, 2024. They told her that the Indiana Department of Correction is ready to resume executions. She was also told that the man who killed her first husband is second in line for the long-awaited death penalty.
"I don't feel joy,” Horen said. “I don't feel happiness. I feel like that justice just needs to be served, and this is the justice that should be given to Bill."
Ritchie shot and killed Toney on Sept. 29, 2000. A pursuit of a suspect in a stolen van turned into a foot chase. Ritchie shot Toney five times, killing the 31-year-old husband and father of two daughters. Ritchie received the death penalty Oct. 15, 2002. All his state and federal appeals are long exhausted. Indiana has never scheduled an execution date.
Credit: WTHR
Benjamin Ritchie shot and killed Beech Grove Police Ofc. Bill Toney on Sept. 29, 2000.
"He was tried and convicted in a court of law in the state of Indiana, sentenced to death,” Horen said. “And yet here we are, all of these years later. So, I do think that it is something that needs to happen. I think if the state of Indiana doesn't go through with these executions, that it just devalues the lives of the people that have been killed, and I will especially speak for police officers."
Two other cases of police officers murdered are currently awaiting death penalty trials.
Seven men sit on Indiana's death row after Joseph Corcoran was executed in December 2024.
Does Horen look forward to attending Ritchie's execution?
“I don't know,” Horen said. “I can't answer that yet. I've thought about it. Looking forward to is not the right word. Will I be there? I think yes. I don't need that to happen to be healed. I need it to happen for justice, and for a message, and for Bill. I don't need it for me. So maybe I'll be there. I'll entertain that when they actually say that it's going to happen on this day."
