Ohio man who killed girlfriend over ATM card to be year’s 8th execution, a state record

Ohio set to break record with year’s 8th execution

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio is on track to set a record for lethal injections as it prepares for its eighth execution of 2010.

Michael Benge (behnj) is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday morning for bludgeoning his girlfriend, Judith Gabbard, to death in southwest Ohio and then using her ATM card to get money for crack cocaine. Gov. Ted Strickland has denied clemency for 49-year-old Benge.

A prisons spokeswoman says Gabbard’s son, daughter and brother plan to watch the execution, along with Benge’s attorney.

The execution would break the state’s record of the most people put to death in a year since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. The previous high of seven was set in 2004.

Ohio’s all-time execution record occurred in 1949, when 15 men were executed in the electric chair.