Man executed for killing wife during prison leave

A man who beat his ex-wife to death with an unloaded shotgun during an eight-hour leave from prison was executed early today in Indiana, hours after the state governor denied his request for clemency.

Alan Matheney, 54, was pronounced dead at 12.27am local time after receiving a lethal injection at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Matheney said his lawyer would give his final statement.

Matheney was sentenced to death in 1990 for murdering 29-year-old Lisa Bianco. Prosecutors said he drove to the South Bend suburb of Mishawaka, broke into Bianco’s home, chased her outside and beat her to death.

When granted the prison break, he had been serving an eight-year sentence for a 1987 assault on Bianco and confining their two children.

The murder came just months after images of Willie Horton, a murderer who committed a rape while on prison leave in Massachusetts, helped derail Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis’ 1988 bid for the White House.

In Indiana, then-Governor Evan Bayh suspended the state’s prison leave program after Bianco’s murder. The program has since been reinstated, but with tighter restrictions.

The state also agreed to pay $900,000 (€748,000) to Bianco’s estate and the couple’s children, who were home at the time of the attack.

Bianco had divorced Matheney in 1985. She continued to fear her husband even after his incarceration and had received assurances from prison officials she would be notified if he was ever released.

She was not notified of the prison break, however, and Matheney violated the terms of his pass and an earlier court order when he left central Indiana for her home.

Yesterday, Governor Mitch Daniels denied a defence lawyers’ request to consider blocking the execution on grounds he was mentally ill.

Millie Bianco, the victim’s mother, said although she believed Matheney deserved to be executed, she had mixed feelings about Daniels’ decision.

“This is a man who washed dishes in my kitchen and who could be charming, who loved his dog,” she said at her home in Lake Alfred, Florida.

“At times your mind skips back to those parts. So it is hard.”

Matheney spent his final day yesterday meeting his two grandchildren for the first time, said Java Ahmed, an Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman. His 22-year-old daughter took her seven-month-old daughter and two-year-old son to visit.

About 20 death penalty opponents marched in front of the prison banging drums yesterday evening to protest against the execution.

It was the state’s fifth execution of 2005, the most in a single year in Indiana since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1977.