Bio

Michael Allen Lambert was born on October 21, 1970. He lived in Indiana and was 20 years old at the time of the shooting that led to the death of Muncie Police Officer Gregg Winters. Before the murder, Lambert had been drinking heavily. On December 28, 1990, Muncie officers were called to a traffic accident involving an abandoned utility truck. Lambert was later found nearby crawling under a vehicle. He told officers he was trying to sleep. Officer Kirk Mace arrested him for public intoxication after a pat-down search and placed him in the back of Officer Gregg Winters’s patrol car for transport to jail.

Murder Story

On December 28, 1990, Officer Gregg Winters was driving Michael Lambert to the Delaware County Jail after Lambert had been arrested for public intoxication. Lambert had been handcuffed and placed in the back seat of the patrol car, but the earlier search did not find a concealed .25-caliber handgun.

A short time later, the patrol car slid off the road into a ditch. When officers reached the vehicle, Lambert was still handcuffed in the back seat. Officer Winters had been shot five times in the back of the head and neck. A .25-caliber handgun was found on the floorboard of the patrol car. Investigators later learned that the gun had been stolen from Lambert’s employer.

Officer Winters survived the shooting for 11 days but died from his injuries on January 8, 1991. He was 31 years old. Lambert was charged with murder, and prosecutors sought the death penalty because the victim was a law enforcement officer acting in the line of duty.

Lambert was convicted of murder on November 16, 1991. On November 18, 1991, the jury returned a death recommendation, and on January 17, 1992, Delaware Superior Court Judge Robert L. Barnet Jr. sentenced Lambert to death. His conviction and death sentence were later reviewed through direct appeal, post-conviction proceedings, and federal habeas litigation. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence, although the case included repeated litigation over intoxication as mitigation and victim-impact evidence.

Lambert’s execution was delayed several times during appeals. A scheduled June 22, 2005 execution was stayed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After further appeals failed, the United States Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels denied clemency.

Michael Allen Lambert was executed by lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City on June 15, 2007. He was pronounced dead at 12:29 a.m. Central Time. He declined a final meal and gave no final statement.