In the modern era ‘” since the state resumed capital punishment in 1999 ‘” the most executions in one year, until this year, was seven in 2004.
The pace of executions has picked up in the past two years in Ohio. Another is scheduled for Nov. 16 (Sidney Cornwell of Mahoning County). Gov. Ted Strickland granted clemency in two other death-penalty cases.
More executions are scheduled early next year. In addition, the Ohio public defender’s office says an additional 20 or so death-penalty cases are close to exhausting all appeals, meaning that execution dates could be set in the near future.
Benge, 49, of Butler County, was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering his girlfriend, Judith Gabbard, on Jan. 31, 1993. He beat Gabbard with a tire iron, threw her body into a river and drained her modest bank account.
Strickland has not decided on Benge’s clemency request. However, it appears unlikely that the governor will spare his life. The Ohio Parole Board voted 9-0 against clemency, concluding that Benge ‘lied to investigators and to the court, and he continues to circumvent the system by telling partial truths to this Parole Board in order to convey remorse and responsibility.’
Unlike Kevin Keith, the Bucyrus man convicted of a triple slaying who was granted clemency by Strickland last month, Benge has attracted no groundswell of legal or popular support.
He would become the 41st person executed since 1999 and the 356th since the state began executions by electrocution in 1897. Killers were hanged before that.
Ohio executions peaked between 1920 and 1949, when 218 people were put to death.
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