Attorney seeks pardon for Laurie Bembenek murder conviction

MADISON — The attorney for Wisconsin's famous runaway convict and convicted murderer Laurie "Bambi" Bembenek is asking Gov. Tony Evers for a pardon.

Bembenek insisted up until her death in 2010 that she did not kill the ex-wife of her husband in 1982. Her attorney filed a pardon request with Evers earlier this year.

Bembenek's case riveted Wisconsin and the nation. She was a Milwaukee police officer and a former Playboy club hostess who escaped from a Wisconsin prison in 1990, inspiring the phrase "Run Bambi Run."

Lawrencia Bembenek

She was released on parole in 1992 after her original conviction was set aside and she agreed to plead no contest to second-degree murder.

Bembenek had a pardon request pending with then-Gov. Jim Doyle in 2010 when she died at age 52 in Oregon of liver failure.