Death Row and Roy Lee Ward

The Worst of the Worst

by Robert A. Waters

"If ever a case called for the death penalty, this is it." Jon Dartt, Spencer County prosecutor.

On  October 10, the state of Indiana plans to execute Roy Lee Ward. 

The Indiana Supreme Court drafted the following statement about the case: "In July, 2001, Ward went to the Payne residence in Dale, Indiana, where he convinced fifteen-year-old Stacy (pictured) to let him inside. Stacy's younger sister, Melissa, was napping upstairs and awoke to Stacy's screams. From the top of the stairs, Melissa saw a man on top of Stacy while Stacy screamed and pleaded with the man to stop. Melissa ran to her parent's bedroom and called 911."

At trial, prosecutor Jon Dartt said, "Roy Lee Ward brutally murdered and raped Stacy Payne in her home. He beat her with his fists, he hit her with a barbell, he tied her up, he stabbed her and he cut her."

The Jasper Herald reported that "one doctor described her wounds as a 'carving.' Another said she was almost cut in two." She was partially paralyzed because Ward cut her spinal column. According to the Herald, "EMTs said she was conscious and tried to push them away because she thought it was Roy Lee Ward coming back to attack her again. She endured ten minutes of being attacked and it was forty-four minutes later at the hospital before she was given anything for pain."

Stacy, a freshman at Heritage Hills High School, was an honor student. She ranked in the top 10 in her class. In the 7th-grade and 8th-grade, Stacy had been a cheerleader and a member of the student council. At her high school, she had recently made "Patriot Student of the Month." She was a member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church and the youth group.

Roy Lee Ward (pictured) was the complete opposite of Stacy Payne.

The Corydon Democrat reported that "Dale Town Marshall Matt Keller, who was the first to arrive at the Payne home, went in the house and saw Ward standing inside the door with blood all over his clothing and  holding a knife in his hand." The marshal cuffed Ward then found Stacy "lying in a pool of blood, naked from the waist down, conscious, with her intestines exposed." Stacy's injuries were too severe for the local hospital to treat, so she was airlifted to University of Louisville Hospital. She died there five hours later.

Ward admitted his guilt to police and even wrote a letter carried by news outlets in which he denied raping Stacy but admitted killing her.

In 2002, a jury convicted Ward of four counts, including rape and murder. He was sentenced to death. However,  one of his appeals stuck, and the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that publicity in the small town before the trial prejudiced the jury. Granted a new trial, he was convicted once more. A new judge again sentenced him to death.

For twenty years, Ward's attorneys launched appeal after appeal, none of which were successful. His latest, arguing that Indiana's lethal injection process is unconstitutional, failed. 

In the decades before murdering Stacy, Ward had served twelve years in prison for dozens of sexual offenses and an occasional burglary. The Henderson Gleaner wrote that "he would reportedly order pizza or flowers just so he could expose himself to the delivery person. He was charged with public indecency multiple times and was on probation at the time of Payne's killing for a burglary conviction in Missouri."

Ward was a complete stranger to the Payne family. When he approached Stacy at her door, he used the ruse that he couldn't find his dog. She had pity on him, and let him inside, likely to use the landline telephone.

When, or I should say, if, Ward is placed on the gurney to receive a deadly dose of drugs, I hope he'll spare us the usual lecture about the cruelty of capital punishment. We really don't care to hear from someone who committed the mind-numbing crimes he did.