(INDIANA CAPITAL CHRONICLE) — Attorneys for death row inmate Roy Lee Ward and the Indiana Attorney General’s Office are sparring before the state’s highest court over whether Ward’s tentative execution date should stand.

Ward’s defense team, in a July 30 filing, urged the Indiana Supreme Court to “recall” the tentative Oct. 10 date based on “new evidence,” which includes sworn affidavits of witnesses to Benjamin Ritchie’s execution in May, as well as postmortem toxicology reports from both Ritchie and another executed inmate, Joseph Corcoran.

But the state argued Monday that Ward has no valid legal grounds to delay his execution, and that his latest claims are “irrelevant” and belong in a different court.

Ward raped and murdered 15‑year‑old Stacy Payne in her Spencer County home in 2001

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