US convict executed for rape and murder

A man who spent nearly two decades on death row in the US for raping and killing a teenager was executed early today.

Bill Benefiel, 48, died by injection at the Indiana State Prison. He was convicted of holding 18-year-old Delores Wells captive for 12 days before killing her on February 17, 1987.

Benefiel also held another Indiana woman, Alicia Elmore, captive for four months in the same house and raped her more than 60 times. She survived and testified against him.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

Benefiel spent a quiet day yesterday watching television, and his only visitor was his attorney, prison officials said.

Wells’ mother, Marge Hagan, was at the prison for the execution but didn’t witness it.

“He was there for her last breath and I want to be there for his,” Hagan said. “I want to be as close as I can and know for sure this monster is gone and he will never, ever again hurt anyone else ever again.”

The Supreme Court yesterday denied a request for a stay of execution filed by Benefiel’s attorneys, who argued the trial judge improperly limited mitigating factors the jury could consider during the sentencing phase.

Last night, about 25 protesters gathered outside the prison for a candlelight vigil and march.

“Our hope is to bring awareness to the atrocities of executions,” said the Reverend Tom Mischler of St Mary of the Lake in Gary, Indiana.

The state’s governor, Mitch Daniels, reviewed a clemency request from Benefiel’s attorneys and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, spokeswoman Jane Jankowski said.

Benefiel’s lawyers sought the review, even though Benefiel signed a waiver on March 7 stipulating he did not want to ask for clemency. He had been on death row since November 1988.

Benefiel was the second person executed by Indiana this year and the 13th in the state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.