Despite the execution date set this morning, Feb. 19, the Ohio Parole Board will still consider Benge’s application for clemency, according to Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper, who worked the case.
All applications are reviewed and examined by the board to determine the propriety of clemency, with a recommendation being forwarded to the governor. Executive clemency can be granted only by the governor.
Most likely, Piper said, Benge’s attorneys will be attempting to have Gov. Ted Strickland lift the death sentence, and instead grant life in prison. Benge has exhausted all of his state and federal appeals.
“Benge lied to the police, lied to the jury, and is now attempting to mislead the clemency board by acting remorseful. He deserved the death penalty then and he deserves it now,” Piper said in a prepared statement. “Judy Gabbard was a beautiful, hard-working woman who would be with her family to this day, if not for the cold-blooded, very violent, brutality that Benge used to steal her life. I’ll fight the clemency proceedings tooth-and-nail, and if anyone saw what he did to Judy, they would understand why.”
According to the facts of the case, in the early morning hours of Feb. 1, 1993, Gabbard’s car was found abandoned on the west side of the Great Miami River in a field near the city’s water treatment plant.
After the car was towed, smears of blood and blood spatters were observed on the car. A search by Hamilton police turned up Gabbard’s body in the river. A 35-pound hunk of concrete had been placed on her head and chest area in an apparent effort to sink and conceal the body.
Piper said Gabbard had been struck nearly a dozen times with a tire iron, leaving severe gashes about her head and face. After the brutal slaying, Benge was captured on ATM cameras withdrawing money from the dead woman’s bank account.
Benge told witnesses that he and his girlfriend had “gotten into it” earlier, and that it “blew over.” Later, he indicated that she was fighting with him and had tried to run him over with the car.
Piper said Benge claimed he fell backward then grabbed a pipe to defend himself. But physical evidence disputed that story, including marks from the tire iron embedded in Gabbard’s face.
Benge killed Gabbard because she refused to give him money to by drugs, according to Piper.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.
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