The Indiana Parole Board will hold clemency hearings later this month for death row inmate Roy Lee Ward, whose execution is scheduled for Oct. 10 at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City.

The board announced this week that the five-member panel will conduct a clemency interview hearing at the prison on Sept. 19.

A public clemency hearing will follow on Sept. 22, at the Indiana Government Center South Auditorium in Indianapolis. Testimony in support of clemency will be allowed from 9 to 11 a.m., followed by testimony in opposition from 1 to 3 p.m. All times are Central.

Ward, 44, was sentenced to death after he pleaded guilty to the 2001 rape and murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne in Spencer County. His case has moved through state and federal courts for more than two decades. The

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