Authorities in Indiana on Friday executed 53-year-old Roy Lee Ward by lethal injection for the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne.
Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 after he continuously stabbed Payne at her home in the town of Dale. The teenager succumbed to her injuries some hours later. Ward was arrested at the scene, still holding the knife used in the attack.
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The execution took place few minutes after midnight (0500 GMT) at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to a statement from the state’s Department of Correction. It marks the third execution in Indiana since the state resumed capital punishment last year, ending a 15-year pause caused by shortages of lethal injection drugs.
Ward’s final meal consisted of a hamburger, steak melt, French fries, shrimp, and breadsticks.
Nationally, Florida has carried out the highest number of executions this year with 13, followed by Texas with five, and both South Carolina and Alabama with four each. Of the executions recorded, 28 were by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and four by nitrogen hypoxia — a method in which nitrogen gas is administered through a mask, leading to suffocation. United Nations experts have criticized nitrogen hypoxia as cruel and inhumane.
Currently, 23 U.S. states have abolished the death penalty, while three others — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — maintain moratoriums.
President Donald Trump, a strong advocate of capital punishment, has repeatedly called for expanding its use to cover what he described as “the vilest crimes.”
