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reprint or license thisAttorney won't file last-minute appeals
Killer declines to participate in clemency hearing
By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
COLUMBUS - Convicted killer Glenn L. Benner II made good on his promise Tuesday and didn't participate in his clemency hearing, which may have been his last chance to escape death.
No one spoke on behalf of Benner, who is to be executed Feb. 7 by lethal injection. He had waived his right to the hearing, but the state was required to hold one anyway.
``His main focus in a lot of this is a more open process, to allow the opportunity to allow evidence he had changed,'' Kate McGarry, Benner's attorney said in a phone interview from New Mexico, where she lives. ``The clemency process focuses on the facts of the crime. He feels there is no reason to request clemency in the state of Ohio.''
Benner, now 43, formerly of Springfield Township, was sentenced to death for the rapes and murders of two Northeast Ohio women in 1985 and 1986. He was also convicted of attacking three other women and was implicated, but never charged, in the rape of a Stow woman.
In the murders and attacks, Benner strangled or attempted to strangle his victims.
McGarry, formerly a public defender in Ohio, declined to elaborate on how Benner has changed. She did say he has caused no problems in prison.
McGarry said she won't be filing any last-minute appeals on Benner's behalf.
Benner wrote to the attorney general's office in December, saying he did not want a clemency hearing. Besides raising concerns about the process, he said he was worried about causing his victims' families more pain.
``Also I feel that my participation in a clemency hearing would add further stress to those already suffering because of my actions, and I do not want to do this to anyone,'' he wrote.
Benner recently released a statement saying he would not grant any interviews.
``I will not comment further, other than I underestimated the power of drugs and in doing so I committed horrific crimes and caused untold and unimaginable pain to many people -- both to people who knew and loved me, and to people to whom I was a terrifying, dangerous stranger,'' he wrote.
Benner said he will address the families of the two women he murdered -- Trina Bowser and Cynthia Sedgwick -- at his execution.
A psychological evaluation of Benner before his trial found that he regularly abused alcohol and marijuana, experimented with other drugs, and was probably under the influence when he committed his crimes.
``It is quite likely that he was in a state of intoxication, which would be expected to reduce his behavior controls,'' Dr. James Siddall, a Norton psychologist, wrote in his evaluation.
McGarry said Benner partly faults substance abuse for his actions. ``He doesn't blame anybody but himself,'' she said. ``He admits that drugs had a lot to do with the behavior that went on.''
If Benner had his way, McGarry said, he would prefer no coverage of his execution.
``That would be fine with him, frankly,'' she said.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com
