Age, Biography, and Wiki
Benjamin Donnie Ritchie, born on May 3, 1980, was a convicted murderer who gained notoriety for his role in the murder of Officer William Toney. Ritchie was involved in a vehicular theft in Beech Grove, Indiana, which led to a police chase. During this incident, Ritchie shot and killed Officer Toney, resulting in his conviction and subsequent death sentence. Ritchie passed away on May 20, 2025, after being executed for his crime.
| Occupation | Criminals |
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| Date of Birth | 3 May 1980 |
| Age | 45 Years |
| Birth Place | Indiana, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Taurus |
| Country | India |
| Date of death | 20 May, 2025 |
| Died Place | Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, Indiana, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
There is no publicly available information on Ritchie's height, weight, or other physical measurements.
Only Ritchie and one accomplice remained in the van while the officers were chasing them. After a short chase, the van pulled into the yard of a residential house, where the pair escaped the van and ran in opposite directions. Ritchie's accomplice, 20-year-old Michael Greer, was caught by Officer Hickey. 31-year-old Officer William Toney continued to pursue Ritchie on foot. Subsequently, Ritchie brandished a handgun and shot him four times. One of the shots penetrated Toney's upper chest above his bulletproof vest, resulting in his death. He had been a policeman for two years.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Details about Ritchie's personal relationships or dating status are not publicly documented.
Ritchie appealed his death sentence, but he was unsuccessful in the regular appeals process. He cited bipolar disorder and cognitive impairments stemming from childhood abuse, personal drug use, and his mother's substance use during pregnancy as reasons for the Indiana Supreme Court to grant him the opportunity to file a successive post-conviction petition. However, it was denied, and the court instead granted the state's motion for an execution date. Ritchie was incarcerated at the Indiana State Prison and executed on May 20, 2025. Ritchie was featured in a two-series documentary of the Indiana State Prison by British journalist Sir Trevor McDonald.
He grew up without knowing the identity of his biological father. Ritchie's mother, Marion Martin, was a stripper who had abused alcohol and drugs even during the time she was pregnant with Ritchie and abandoned her son twice before he was three years old. The husband of Ritchie's mother, Donald Peoples, likewise abandoned him after taking custody of Ritchie's two older half-brothers, and learning the truth that Ritchie was not related to him; Ritchie, whose birth name was Benjamin Peoples, changed his surname after his adoption by Verna and Oscar Ritchie.
During his schooling years, Ritchie struggled with behavioral and academic issues, including repeating the first grade and dropping out in the ninth grade. He was also said to have undergone counseling from a minister from the third to fourth grade, and he also underwent treatment at Community North Hospital at age ten. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder and cognitive impairments, with the childhood abuse and substance abuse of his mother as likely causes of these conditions. In August 1998, Ritchie was found guilty of committing burglary, and by 2000, Ritchie was out of prison and placed under probation.
On August 10, 2002, the jury found Ritchie guilty of the murder of Officer William Toney, as well as auto theft, carrying an unlicensed firearm and resisting arrest. In their arguments against the death penalty, the defense said that Ritchie suffered from mental disabilities caused either by a past head injury or his mother's pre-natal substance abuse, and that his tragic upbringing was not his voluntary life choice, and he thus deserved judicial mercy. The prosecution, however, refuted that no amount of suffering Ritchie went through could be an excuse for his actions and added that there were many people who had had traumatic experiences similar to Ritchie's but did not grow up to become cop killers.
On October 15, 2002, 22-year-old Benjamin Donnie Ritchie was formally sentenced to death by Marion County Superior Court Judge Patricia Gifford. Prior to Ritchie's sentencing, Officer Toney's widow was allowed to give a victim impact statement, and she addressed Ritchie in court, saying that she knew he was not sorry for his actions, he was a coward for killing her husband, and that she hoped he would be miserable for the rest of his life in prison until his execution.
In 2024, it was revealed that during his incarceration, Ritchie had a four-year relationship with a Swedish woman, who reportedly fell in love with Ritchie after first seeing him in a crime documentary and even travelled to the United States to visit him. According to Ritchie's former girlfriend, there was a secret plan for them to ensure Ritchie's escape from prison but it was aborted as Ritchie did not want his then girlfriend to risk her life. After the end of her relationship with Ritchie, the woman turned to drugs for a period of time before she moved on and became a mother to one daughter.
In 2013, Ritchie appeared in a crime documentary titled Inside Death Row. The show, hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald, covered the lives of prisoners on death row in Indiana, including Ritchie. This show was followed by a second season of the documentary in 2018, in which Ritchie would re-appear. Reportedly, Toney's widow remarried a family friend of her first husband and later had a son.
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Net Worth and Salary
As a convicted felon on death row, Benjamin Ritchie did not have a conventional career or income. His net worth was not significant, and most of his life was spent in prison awaiting execution. The focus of his life was on the legal proceedings and appeals related to his conviction.
Career, Business, and Investments
Ritchie's career was marked by his involvement in criminal activities, culminating in the tragic event that led to his conviction. There is no information available on him engaging in any legitimate business or investments.
A month before Ritchie's trial began, his lawyers appealed to the state courts and argued that Ritchie should not be put to death. This motion was filed in light of Ring v. Arizona, a 2002 landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that only juries, not judges, can sentence offenders to death. Ritchie's lawyers submitted that the death penalty should be taken off the table in their client's case and claimed that the death penalty statutes of Indiana were unconstitutional for enabling judges the right to impose death sentences via judicial override when a jury remains undecided on sentence. Subsequently, Marion County judge Patricia Gifford ruled that this aspect of Indiana's capital punishment law was unconstitutional but did not dispute the general constitutionality of the death penalty as a whole, allowing the death penalty to remain available as a sentencing option in Ritchie's trial, stating that a defendant's right to a fair trial could still be protected.
On September 27, 2024, the Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed a motion to the Indiana Supreme Court to schedule an execution date for Ritchie. The application was submitted just two weeks after Joseph Corcoran, a convicted mass murderer and fellow death row inmate from Indiana, was assigned an execution date of December 18, 2024. At the time, Ritchie was the second inmate in line for imminent execution in the state. Indiana's death row housed only eight individuals then, and four of them, including both Corcoran and Ritchie, had exhausted all available appeals. The court also set dates for both sides to file submissions. In response to the pending death warrant, Ritchie's counsel argued that he was represented by ineffective legal counsel during the original trial, and that his trial lawyers failed to investigate whether Ritchie suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorders as well as childhood lead exposure. As of June 2024, Ritchie was the only death row inmate in Indiana convicted of murdering a law enforcement officer, and two more individuals were pending trial for such crimes, with both facing the possibility of capital punishment.
While legal proceedings over Ritchie's pending death warrant were still underway, Indiana authorities proceeded with the execution of Corcoran by lethal injection on December 18, 2024, officially ending the state's 15-year moratorium on capital punishment, which was caused by the state's lack of drug supplies to facilitate lethal injection executions and the refusal of drug manufacturers to sell their products for the purposes of carrying out death sentences.
Social Network
Ritchie did not have an active social network presence, given his circumstances. His life was heavily restricted while on death row, limiting his interactions with the outside world.
After his arrest, Benjamin Ritchie was charged with the murder of William Toney. Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman confirmed in November 2000 that he would seek the death penalty for Ritchie. Before the start of the trial, a gag order was put in place by a judge to bar the police and legal professionals related to the case from discussing it outside the court. This was done in light of a media interview in which Ritchie claimed he accidentally killed Officer Toney, a story which was supported by a friend.
On April 15, 2025, after hearing the case for seven months, the Indiana Supreme Court rejected Ritchie's motion for post-conviction relief and by a divided ruling, also scheduled an execution date for Ritchie, ordering his death sentence to be carried out before dawn on May 20, 2025.
Education
There is no detailed information available on Ritchie's educational background or any formal education he may have received.
In summary, Benjamin Ritchie's life was marked by a tragic event that defined his legal and personal trajectory. His passing in 2025 marked the end of his lengthy legal battle against his death sentence.
