Indiana Supreme Court sets execution date for Roy Lee Ward

The Indiana Supreme Court has set an execution date for Roy Lee Ward.

Ward was sentenced to death for the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne in Spencer County. He’s one of six men still on death row, after Indiana ended its 15-year hiatus on capital punishment with the execution of Joseph Corcoran in Dec. 2024 and Benjamin Ritchie in May 2025.

Ward was sentenced to death in 2007, and the State moved to set an execution date on June 27, 2025, asserting that there are no further grounds for review of his convictions or sentence.

Ward’s counsel requested a thirty-day extension to respond to the State’s motion, citing unanswered public records requests related to the drugs intended for use in the execution.

News 8 was the first to report the state had to pay $275,000 for a new dose of pentobarbital for Ritchie’s death by lethal injection because two doses bought under Gov. Eric Holcomb had expired. 

The State opposed Ward’s extension request, arguing that the information sought is irrelevant to the current motion to set an execution date. The State contends that the only issue before the court is whether the law requires setting an execution date. The Indiana Supreme Court referenced a similar case, Corcoran v. State, where concerns about execution protocol were deemed not properly before the court during the motion to set an execution date.

The court maintained this view in Ward’s case. The court acknowledged that setting an execution date triggers a series of responsibilities for state and federal officials, including potential federal litigation and petitions to the Governor for sentence commutation. Ward’s response to the State’s motion is due by July 30, 2025, and the State may file a reply brief by August 11, 2025.

Following Ritchie’s execution, Governor Braun said the state would pause purchasing any new doses of the drug so lawmakers and the public could debate the future of the death penalty in Indiana. 

The state spent a total $1.175 million on pentobarbital, including expired doses and those used to execute Corcoran and Ritchie, but Indiana Department of Correction officials said they do not know how much it cost to carry out either of its two recent executions.

Read the Supreme Court’s order here:

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