Indiana executes man who killed cop while drunk

By Karen Murphy

MICHIGAN CITY, Indiana (Reuters) - The state of Indiana on Friday executed a man who killed a police officer after he was arrested for public drunkenness more than 16 years ago.

Michael Lambert, 36, was pronounced dead at 12:29 a.m. CDT (1:29 a.m. EDT, 0529 GMT) after an injection of lethal chemicals, officials at the Indiana State Prison said.

Lambert had lost a series of final court appeals and was denied clemency by both the state parole board and Gov. Mitch Daniels.

He was convicted of killing Gregg Winters, a city policeman in Muncie, Indiana, in December 1990.

Winters took him into custody for public drunkenness. Sitting in the back of Winters' squad car, Lambert pulled a gun he had concealed and shot the officer, a 32-year-old father of two, five times in the back of his head.

Winters' brother, Terry Winters, the deputy chief of the Muncie police department, witnessed the execution. Roughly a hundred other police officers held a candlelight vigil outside the prison.

Lambert had been given a kitten while on death row, which he left to his son. The kitten was three months old.

Lambert was offered a meal of his choosing on Wednesday night but declined the offer. He has contended he didn't know what he was doing when he killed Winters because he was drunk.