INDIANA. EXECUTED FOR RAPE AND MURDER

April 21, 2005: the state of Indiana executed a man convicted of killing a teenage girl by forcing instant glue up her nose and taping her mouth shut after 12 days of rape and torture.
Bill Benefiel, 48, was pronounced dead at 12:35 a.m. CDT following an injection of lethal chemicals, officials at the Indiana State Prison said.
When asked for a final statement, Benefiel said, "No, let's get this over with. Let's do it."
His victim, 18-year-old Delores Wells, disappeared in January, 1987, in Terre Haute, Ind. Another young woman who Benefiel also was holding captive at his house was later rescued and told police how he had suffocated Wells.
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.
Benefiel was the second person executed in Indiana and the 16th put to death in the United States this year. His execution was the 13th in Indiana and the 960th in the United States since the country restored capital punishment in 1976. (Sources: Reuters 21/04/2005)