Alan Matheney was executed by the State of Indiana for the murder of Lisa Blanco
According to court documents Alan Matheney was sent to prison for the assault and confinement of his ex-wife Lisa Blanco. After serving two years he was given a eight hour pass. Matheney would head straight to the town where his wife was, borrowed a shotgun and would murder the woman
Alan Matheney would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Alan Matheney would be executed on September 28 2005
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When Was Alan Matheney Executed
Alan Matheney was executed on September 28 2005
Alan Matheney Case
Alan Matheney, 54, one of the most notorious killers on Indiana’s Death Row, was executed by lethal injection early today at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Gov. Mitch Daniels denied him clemency Tuesday without explanation. He was the fifth inmate to be executed in Indiana this year, the most since the death penalty was reinstituted in 1977.
Late Tuesday night, minutes before the execution took place, seven people stood outside the governor’s residence with signs protesting the execution. “I call it the murder penalty,” said Jennifer Cobb, 47. “I believe the state taking a life because that person took a life makes the state a hypocrite.”
A Lake County jury, which recommended the death penalty, convicted Matheney of murder for beating his ex-wife, Lisa Marie Bianco, 29, to death in March 1989 with a rifle butt while on an eight-hour furlough from the Correctional Industrial Facility near Pendleton. Matheney traveled to Mishawaka, burst into Bianco’s home, caught her as she tried to run away and struck her in the head with a rifle so hard the weapon broke.
At the time of his crime, Matheney was serving a seven-year sentence for beating Bianco and trying to abduct their two daughters. Mental health experts testified Matheney was delusional, falsely believing Bianco was having an affair with a local prosecutor and the pair were conspiring to keep him in prison for life.
At trial, his legal team, including then-public defender Scott King, who’s now mayor of Gary, mounted an unsuccessful insanity defense. Bianco’s murder made national headlines and prompted then-Gov. Evan Bayh, who was nearly two months into his first term, to scrap furloughs and deny nearly all requests for clemency during his eight years in office. Since Bayh, two governors, Democrat Joe Kernan and Republican Mitch Daniels, have commuted the death sentences of three inmates.
Last month, Daniels spared the life of Arthur P. Baird II, who was diagnosed as severely mentally ill. Indiana has executed 15 people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050928/NEWS01/509280465
