Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man who 10 year old girl murdered This will be the country's 25th and last execution of the year.
Kevin Ray Underwood is scheduled to die by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester on Thursday, his 45th birthday. Underwood, a former grocery store employee, was sentenced to death in 2006 for the murder of Jamie Rose Bolin under a cannibalistic fantasy.
Underwood admitted that he lured Jamie into his apartment and hit her over the head with a cutting board, then strangled her and sexually assaulted her. He told investigators that he had nearly decapitated the girl in his bathtub before abandoning his plans to eat her.
Sue Ogrocki/AP
Oklahoma uses a three-drug lethal injection procedure that starts with the sedative midazolam, followed by a second drug that paralyzes prisoners and stops their breathing and a third drug that stops their hearts. .
During a hearing before the state Pardon and Parole Board last week, Underwood told the girl's family he was sorry.
“I want to apologize to the victim's family, to my own family, and to everyone in the room today who had to listen to the horrific details of what I did,” Underwood told the board via a video feed from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The three board members present at last week's meeting voted against the clemency recommendation.
Underwood's attorneys had argued that he deserved to be spared death due to his long history of abuse and serious mental health issues, including autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder. And various deviations are involved. Sexual contradiction.
His mother, Connie Underwood, tearfully asked the board to grant her son mercy.
“I can't imagine the mental anguish that precious girl's family goes through every day,” Connie Underwood said. “I wish we had understood his pain before it gave rise to this tragedy.”
But several members of Bolin's family asked the board to reject Underwood's clemency bid. girl's father, Curtis Bolin was scheduled to testify before the board, but he suffocated as he held his head in his hands.
“I'm sorry, I can't,” he said.
Prosecutors opposed Underwood's clemency request, writing that, “Whatever mental disturbance caused Underwood to kidnap, beat, suffocate, sexually assault, and nearly decapitate Jamie, he must have been suffering from depression, anxiety, or ( Autism) cannot be placed in stages.
“Underwood is dangerous because he is shrewd, organized and motivated by deviant sexual desires rooted in the harm and abuse of others.”
In a last-minute request to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a stay of execution, Underwood's attorneys argued that he is entitled to a hearing before the full five-member parole board and that the panel did not agree with the state by rescheduling its hearing last fall. Violated the law and Underwood's rights. One minute after two board members resigned.