INDIANA EXECUTION
BILL J. BENEFIEL
April 21, 2005

...this is a bad one...

Last Meal: Benefiel requested one large pizza with sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, green pepper, black olives and tomatoes; One 12-inch Italian beef sandwich with cheese; Four pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream: Butter Pecan, Cherry Garcia, New York Super Fudge Chunk and Oatmeal Cookie Chunk; One Dutch apple pie; Six cans of RC cola; Six cans of Pepsi cola.

The skinny: Benefiel was executed for killing a teenage girl by forcing instant glue up her nose and taping her mouth shut after 12 days of rape and torture.

More skinny: Note: We have omitted many of the heinious details of this crime. A site called prodeathpenalty.com has a more complete picture. It is just too much for us. A 17-year old woman was kidnapped on the way to a store two blocks from her home by Benefiel, who was armed with a gun and wearing a mask. She was tied-up and gagged, driven to Benefiel’s home and taken inside.

During 4 months of captivity inside Benefiel’s home, she was raped and sodomized over 60 times at gunpoint. Most of this time she was chained and handcuffed to a bed. He glued her eyelids shut, put tape over her eyes, and toilet paper in her mouth. She was cut with a knife and beaten.

After 3½ months, she saw a second girl in the home. The second girl was naked and handcuffed on the bed, with tape over her eyes and mouth. Later she saw Benefiel beat the second girl and put superglue in her nose, then pinch it together. Benefiel left the home for 2 hours and upon his return, confessed that he had killed and buried the second girl. When police knocked on the door, Benefiel stuffed the girl into a ceiling crawl space. The police entered with a search warrant and rescued her. The body of the victim was found soon after in a wooded area.

He was sentenced to death in 1988 after a jury found him guilty of murder, rape, criminal confinement and deviant conduct. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and his lawyers in the ensuing years said he suffered from mental illness but the courts ordered the execution to proceed.

Last words and such: When asked for a final statement, Benefiel said, "No, let's get this over with. Let's do it."

Other than select members of the three teams conducting the execution, only one person witnessed the execution. Benefiel had the final say in who will be allowed to witness his lethal injection.

"We're the only state in the U.S. that does it that way," said aspokesman for the prison, said Tuesday. Other states make other provisions, he said, but in Indiana, the convict makes the choice.

Benefiel agreed to not having an autopsy done and will be cremated.

Prison officials conduct autopsies on executed prisoners so claims cannot be made that the prisoner was abused or died of something other than chemical injection.

Factoids: Benefiel was the...

16th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
960th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
2nd murderer executed in Indiana in 2005
13th murderer executed in Indiana since 1976
The 87th Hoosier executed since 1897.

About 25 people gathered outside the prison Wednesday night to protest the execution. The demonstration started with a candlelight vigil with people speaking against the death penalty, then they marched carrying signs in front of the prison for about half an hour. "Our hope is to bring awareness to the atrocities of executions," said the Rev. Tom Mischler of St. Mary of the Lake in Gary. "In this case we want to bring attention to the fact that the person being executed has a mental illness." He said while Benefiel's actions are monstrous, the person who committed them wasn't.

Rick Richards brought his 7-year-old daughter to see the vigil. "She was just curious about what was going on," Richards said. "She's having a hard time grasping, 'Why are we doing this?"'

If the folks had any concern for the victim or what their feelings would be if their 7-year old daughter were put through a similair ordeal, it was not reported.

The victim's mother and her children waited inside the prison, they could hear the demonstrators' drum beats. Demonstrators beat the drums as a symbolic protest against executions as society's idea of justice. "I could never feel joy over somebody dying," she said, but added that the protesters should just stay away. "Until they've walked a mile in our shoes - lost a family member - they should just stay home," she said.

TEXAS LAST MEAL
DOUGLAS ROBERTS
April 20. 2005

..."I've been hanging around this popsicle stand way too long..."

Last Meal: Roberts requested three Southern fried chicken breasts, two bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, three enchiladas, ground beef, two grilled pork chops, six corn tortillas, four deviled eggs, 12 green olives with Italian ketchup, butter beans and cabbage seasoned with hambone, broccoli with cheese sauce, fried onion rings, french fries, tomato, lettuce, cheese, picante sauce, onions and jalapenos.

The skinny: Roberts, 42, was executed for the kidnapping, robbery, and murder of a 40-year-old man.

More skinny: Roberts stole a car from a woman at knifepoint at a convenience store. Fearing that the car had been reported stolen, Roberts later drove into an apartment complex parking lot and abducted the victim in his own car at knifepoint. Roberts robbed the man of his cash and ordered him to drive him out of San Antonio. Roberts ordered him out of the car on a desolate road outside the city at knifepoint. The victim lunged and Roberts stated he repeatedly stabbed him, then ran over his body as he drove away in the car. Roberts drove to Austin, called 911 and told the dispatcher he kidnaped and killed the man. In a videotaped interview with police, Roberts gave a complete confession.

A Bowie knife was recovered from the front seat of the car. An autopsy determined that the man was stabbed five times. He also suffered blunt trauma to his brain.

Leading up to...In an interview from death row, Roberts said that he was high on cocaine when he killed. "I was stoned out of my mind," he said. Lost in an unfamiliar place, he saw the man and thought, "this guy is going to take me out of the city. So I kidnapped him and his vehicle. "I guess he decided at the last minute he didn't want to be stranded, or thought he could overpower me," Roberts said. Roberts said that he first tried cocaine at age 10.

He insisted he had no desire to die but saw his execution as a way to end the loneliness and isolation of death row, which he described as "23 hours a day in a cement box." "So if you've got to spend the rest of your life like this, and if you're like me and know the Lord, then today's a good day to go," he said.

Last words and such: Roberts was upbeat and animated in the seconds before the lethal drugs were administered. "I've been hanging around this popsicle stand way too long, I want to tell you all. When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock 'n' roll me when I'm dead. I'll see you in heaven some day." Roberts was smiling and mouthing "I love you all" to friends watching through a window, then said "I've got to go" and took his final breath.

Factoids: Roberts was the...

15th murderer executed in U.S. in 2005
959th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
5th murderer executed in Texas in 2005
341st murderer executed in Texas since 1976

Originally, there were two executions slated for today, but one won a stay.

The most known executions in Texas in one day took place on Feb. 8, 1924 when the state used its new electric chair to put five people to death.

Having two executions on the same day is just a coincidence because the dates are set by the judges who preside over the criminal cases of each inmate. The judges usually do not consult with each other and their only scheduling criteria is that no executions are performed around Christmas or Easter, officials said.

At least four more Texas inmates have execution dates for May.

THE COLLEGEHUMOR.COM version of Reader's Last Meals...(we got flooded when that site linked us! Kind of makes us worry about the state of humor in higher education, though.)

Steve, from Myrtle Beach, SC

my last meal should consist of:
1 bowl of oat bran cereal
2 scoops of cottage cheese on a fresh lettuce leaf
2 slices of pineapple
and a 20 oz bottle of Evian water

christall e. from parts unknown..

I would have a 8oz Filet Mignon medium rare with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus, fried oysters and one slice of pepperoni pizza and for desserts a turtle cheesecake and then a diet cherry coke.

Diane from Beltsville, MD

2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Tall glass of whole milk
Chicken and dumplings
Crabcake
Rootbeer float
cigarette

S. Blasdel..

1) A GOOD 24 0z. steak. (pure meat, well trimmed, no bones or shit like that)
2) At least 2 gallons of garlic mashed potatoes.
3) Artichokes, steamed leaves still on.
4) Best quality french bread there is.
5)Various fruit, especially bananas.
6)Baked potatoes
7) boiled potatoes.
8)Salmon (no dam skin on it!)
9)A baby. Thats right, a baby. I'm gonna go out in style!
10)An assortment of cheeses.
11)A selection of soft drinks (Pepsi products)
12) Various mineral waters
13)A chocolate cake (not some cheap ass store brand shit)
14) Grind up another baby and make me a baby smoothie.
15)A live band.
16)Pudding.
17) Also, I want an Aero Arnio ball chair to sit in the entire time.
18)Evian (not deer park of safeway brand)
19)At least one prostitute (at least)
20) Another baby for good luck
21) an assortment of mind altering drugs

DME READERS BE THE SMARTEREST AND BESTEST IN THE WORLD!

We posed a question pondering the movie that Richard Longworth was watching before he and his buddy blew off the heads of two young theatre workers starting the prime of their life. Well, ask and ye shall recieve (though not from Mark on the Longworth legal team).

Jimmy, who also expressed a desire to purchase a thong, sent the following missive...

You asked the lawyer for Richard Longworth to give some useful information like “What movie he was watching?”

Well, I found this while trawling the net….

“They arrived at the West Gate Theatre at an unknown time. But he knows it was before twelve o'clock midnight. Upon entering the theatre, Longworth remembered seeing an employee, and, in fact, waved to him. Longworth and Rocheville walked around inside the theater for a short time, and believed the two of them went inside where the movie Dances with Wolves was playing. Longworth remembers that when they entered the theater through the front door, there was no one in the ticket booth. And accordingly, they walked in without having to pay.”

There you go folks..."Dances with Wolves." I think that answers alot of questions.

Thanks, Jimmy and I have to look, but I think you can buy a thong without Paypal. I would send you mine, but it is currently in use.