An Oklahoma man who killed a 10-year-old girl in a cannibalistic fantasy died by lethal injection on Thursday in the nation’s 25th and final execution of the year.
Kevin Ray Underwood was pronounced dead at 10.14am at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, state Department of Corrections spokesperson Lance West said.
It was Oklahoma’s fourth execution of the year, and it took place on Underwood’s 45th birthday.
Oklahoma uses a three-drug lethal injection process that begins with the sedative midazolam followed by a second drug that paralyses the inmate and a third that stops their heart.
Underwood, a former grocery store worker, was sentenced to die for killing Jamie Rose Bolin in 2006.
Underwood admitted to luring Jamie into his apartment and beating her over the head with a cutting board before suffocating and sexually assaulting her.
He told investigators that he nearly beheaded Jamie in his bathtub before abandoning his plans to eat her.
During a hearing last week before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, Underwood told the girl’s family he was sorry.
“I would like to apologise to the victim’s family, to my own family and to everyone in that room today that had to hear the horrible details of what I did,” Underwood said to the board via a video feed from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The three board members in attendance all voted against recommending clemency.
Underwood’s attorneys had argued that he deserved to be spared the death penalty because of his long history of abuse and serious mental health issues that included autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and various deviant sexual paraphilias.
Prosecutors argued that many people suffer from mental illness, but that does not justify harming children.
In a last-minute request seeking a stay of execution from the US Supreme Court, Underwood’s attorneys argued that he deserved a hearing before all five members of the board and that the panel violated state law and Underwood’s rights by rescheduling the hearing at the last minute after two members of the board resigned.
The court rejected that bid on Thursday morning.
