An Indiana man convicted in the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl was executed by injection early Friday in the state’s third execution since resuming capital punishment last year.
Roy Lee Ward, 53, was put to death at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Indiana Department of Correction said in a statement that the process started shortly after midnight and Ward was pronounced dead at 12:33 a.m.
Ward was convicted in the rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne. Authorities said Ward attacked the girl with a knife and dumbbell in her family’s southern Indiana home. The crime rocked Dale, a community of roughly 1,500 people.
Ward’s last meal included a hamburger from Texas Corral, according to IDOC. One of his spiritual advisors, Deacon Brian Nosbusch, was allow