The US state of Ohio executed a man today for raping and strangling a woman he grew up with and killing a woman he met at a concert in a five-month spree of assaults while on drugs.
Glenn Benner (43) died by injection at 10.15am (local time) at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. He assaulted two other women in 1985 and 1986 in the Akron area in north-east Ohio.
Benner smiled at relatives and nodded toward the victims' families when he entered the execution chamber.
"Over the last 20 years I've caused you unimaginable pain and I'm sorry. [Victims] Trina and Cynthia were beautiful girls who didn't deserve what I done to them. They are in a better place. I pray that God will grant you peace," Benner said just before he died.
Bradley Bowser, one of Trina Bower's three brothers who witnessed the execution, said: "That won't get you into heaven, ace."
Ohio Govenor Bob Taft accepted the unanimous recommendation against clemency by the Ohio Parole Board, with one member calling the crimes "pure evil."
Benner refused to ask for his life to be spared because he said the process does not consider whether a person changes in prison. Benner had admitted committing horrific crimes while under the influence of drugs.
He was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering Trina Bowser (21) leaving her body in the boot of her car along a highway in Tallmadge, Ohio - the town where they grew up across the street from each other.
Benner was convicted of the same charges for strangling Cynthia Sedgwick (26) of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in the woods near a concert amphitheatre in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
He was the 20th man Ohio has executed since resuming the death penalty in 1999.
AP