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Last updated on Thursday, September 20, 2012
(INDIANAPOLIS) - An execution date of Dec. 11th has been set for Roy Lee Ward, who was convicted in the July 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne.
The Indiana State Supreme Court scheduled the execution last week after denying Ward's petition for a rehearing in a post-conviction appeal.
Ward, who was from Leopold, was 29 years old when he murdered the Dale girl. He is now 40 and still seeking avenues to explore in the appeals process. He is incarcerated at the state prison at Michigan City.
He was first convicted and sentenced to death in 2002, but the Indiana Supreme Court reversed the conviction in 2004 because of pretrial publicity. Ward was retried, convicted and again sentenced to death in 2007. His convictions and sentence have thus far been affirmed on appeal.
Ward has additional avenues of appeal he could pursue on the federal level, and the warrant for execution just issued by the Indiana State Supreme Court is subject to any stay issued by a federal court.
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