Michael Lambert was executed by the State of Indiana for the murder of a police officer
According to court documents Michael Lambert was arrested and placed in the back of a police car . Along the way Lambert would pull out a gun and shoot Officer Gregg Winters multiple times causing his death
Michael Lambert was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael Lambert was executed by lethal injection on June 15 2007
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Michael Lambert FAQ
When Was Michael Lambert Executed
Michael Lambert was executed on June 15 2007
Michael Lambert Case
The man convicted of fatally shooting a Muncie police officer more than 16 years ago was executed early Friday. Michael Lambert, 36, was pronounced dead at 12:29 a.m. CDT following the lethal injection procedure, Indiana State Prison spokesman Barry Nothstine said. Lambert did not offer a final statement.
Some 20 police cars arrived at the prison about two hours before the execution, bringing dozens of officers and others from Muncie and elsewhere, including LaPorte, Mishawaka, South Bend and Gary. As they awaited word of the execution, they held blue glowsticks given to them by the widow of Officer Gregg Winters to represent the “thin blue line” he was on the night he was killed.
Molly Winters hugged supporters outside the prison soon after Lambert’s death was announced and said she was relieved it was over. “Justice has been served,” she said. “You look at all the blue lights behind you. It shows you that Gregg has not been forgotten and everything he stood for.” Lambert’s execution came about nine hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected, without commenting, his final appeal. Gov. Mitch Daniels on Wednesday had denied his clemency petition.
Lambert fatally shot Winters on Dec. 28, 1990, while Winters was driving him in a cruiser to the Delaware County Jail on a charge of public intoxication. Another officer had patted Lambert down but 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.
Terry Winters, the slain officer’s brother and deputy chief of the Muncie Police Department, witnessed the execution under a state law that took effect last year giving relatives of murder victims that right. “It was not an easy thing, but his death was a lot smoother than what my brother’s was,” Terry Winters said of watching the lethal injection. “His punishment for that crime was death and it’s been carried out. And that’s the end of it.”
Molly Winters had decided not to watch the execution, saying she was with her husband when he died and that she did not want Lambert’s death to also be in her memories. The couple’s two sons, 19-year-old Kyle and 17-year-old Brock, joined their mother at the prison. “It’s just more relief that this part’s over even though it’s still not going to bring Dad back,” Kyle Winters said. Brock Winter’s eyes welled up and he did not speak as his family members commented.
Lambert said in an interview last week that he could not remember what happened the night of the shooting and had no explanation for why he shot Winters. “No one in their right mind is going to sit there facing a public intoxication charge or something like that and go to that extreme,” he said. “That’s one of the aspects of this thing that makes it hard to come to terms with.”
Muncie police Detective Brad Wiemer, who was among those who traveled to the prison, said the group was there in a show of support for the Winters family. “In a horrible, tragedy situation like this, it’s just nice to see the support come out, especially from different areas,” Wiemer said.
Some 25 anti-death penalty protesters carried signs and banged drums outside the prison’s main gate in the hours before the execution. The Rev. Tricia Teater, a Buddhist priest from Chicago, said she spent Thursday afternoon with Lambert, praying, mediating and chanting. “It is a very sad thing for this society to keep spinning the cycle of violence and creating more victims and more pain,” she told the protesters.
Lambert’s attorneys had asked the Supreme Court on Monday to stay the execution on several grounds, including the fact that three of the five Indiana Supreme Court justices had at times during his appeals ruled his death sentence was “constitutionally deficient.” The appeals argued that the execution should be blocked because the state’s high court had found that the jury in Lambert’s case was improperly exposed to victim impact evidence. “We thought that in America three out of five wins, an issue that was constantly going around throughout the case of an unfair sentencing hearing,” Lambert attorney Alan M. Freedman said Thursday. “But that’s part of the process and we’ve lost.” Lambert’s attorneys did not speak with reporters following the execution.
Lambert, who did not request a special last meal, met Thursday with some friends after having visited with family members earlier in the week, said Nothstine, the prison spokesman.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007306150001
