MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — When Michael Lambert was set to be executed two years ago, he agreed to let the brother of the police officer he fatally shot more than 16 years ago watch him die.
That execution was stayed. Since then, a change in Indiana law means he has no say over who in Muncie Officer Gregg Winters’ family can watch his execution now set for early Friday. It’s a change Lambert doesn’t like.
“I don’t think anyone should be given that choice,” he said during an interview last week. “It’s not natural just to come in and watch someone die — not just die, but watch someone be killed. It’s not natural.”
Terry Winters, deputy chief of the Muncie Police Department, thought it was unfair he needed to ask Lambert for permission two years ago.
“My brother is the victim here and it shouldn’t be up to him (Lambert),” Winters said.
Gov. Mitch Daniels on Wednesday denied clemency for Lambert. The governor did not elaborate on his decision, which was issued in a brief statement from his office.
“Obviously, we’re very disappointed,” Larry Komp, one of the attorneys representing Lambert through the Midwest Center for Justice in Evanston, Ill., said Wednesday.
Lambert’s last chance to avoid execution rested with the U.S. Supreme Court.
His attorneys on Monday asked the Court to stop it on several grounds, including the fact that three of Indiana’s five Supreme Court justices have at times during his appeals ruled his death sentence is “constitutionally deficient.” The high court had not ruled as of Thursday afternoon.
Lambert killed Gregg Winters on Dec. 28, 1990, while he was being brought to the Delaware County Jail on a charge of public intoxication. A police officer who patted Lambert down did not find the gun he had in his pocket. Lambert shot Winters five times in the head, and the officer died 11 days later.
Lambert is the second person to be executed under the new law that gives up to eight spots to immediate family members of murder victims. Last month, five adult children of Juan Placencia watched as David Leon Woods was executed.
Terry Winters was the only relative who asked to witness the execution that will be by lethal injection. Gregg Winters’ widow, Molly, did not want to watch but planned to be at the prison.
“I was with Gregg those 11 days that he was laying there fighting for his life,” she said. “And I was there when he took his last breath and died. That is a memory that will always be in my mind. I will not give Michael Lambert the privilege of knowing he will always be forever in my memories right next to Gregg. I’m not doing it.”
A federal appeals court temporarily blocked Lambert’s 2005 execution. It later lifted that order, and the U.S. Supreme Court for a fourth time declined to review his case.
He then filed another appeal with the Indiana Supreme Court, which it denied last month and set the new execution date. Lambert again argued that his death sentence should be overturned because the state’s high court had held that the jury in his case was improperly exposed to victim impact evidence.
State News
3:13 p.m.: Lambert doesn’t like change in who can watch executions
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