A 53-year-old man, Roy Lee Ward, who was convicted of raping and killing a teenage girl in 2001, has been executed by lethal injection in the US state of Indiana, officials confirmed on Friday.
Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne, who was brutally stabbed at her home in the town of Dale. Payne succumbed to her injuries several hours after the assault.
Authorities said Ward was arrested at the scene of the crime while still holding a knife.
According to a statement from the Indiana Department of Correction, the execution was carried out shortly after midnight (0500 GMT) at the state prison in Michigan City.
Ward became the third person executed in Indiana since the state resumed capital punishment last year, following a 15-year suspension caused by difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs.
Before his death, Ward reportedly chose a final meal that included a hamburger, a steak melt, fries, shrimp, and breadsticks.
His execution marks one of 35 carried out in the United States this year, equalling the total number recorded in 2014.
Florida leads the tally with 13 executions, followed by Texas (5), and South Carolina and Alabama (4 each).
Out of the 35 executions in 2025, 28 were by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and four by nitrogen hypoxia — a new method that involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, leading to death by suffocation.
The use of nitrogen gas as a means of execution has drawn criticism from United Nations human rights experts, who have described it as cruel and inhumane.
Currently, 23 US states have abolished the death penalty, while California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania maintain moratoriums preventing its use.
Former US President Donald Trump has been a vocal supporter of capital punishment and, upon assuming office, called for its expansion “for the vilest crimes.”
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