A man who murdered a 10-year-old girl as part of his cannibalistic fantasy has been killed by lethal injection on his birthday.
Kevin Ray Underwood was the US’s final execution of the year when he was pronounced dead on Thursday morning at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Underwood, who admitted to brutally killing Jamie Rose Bolin in 2006, looked at his mother and family and his defense team as three drugs were administered into his system starting at 10.04am.
His breathing appeared interrupted and he shut his eyes minutes later. Underwood was pronounced dead at 10.14am, said state Department of Corrections spokesperson Lance West.
It was the same day that Underwood turned 45.
‘The decision to execute me on my birthday and six days before Christmas was a needlessly cruel thing to do to my family,’ said Underwood.
‘But I’m very sorry for what I did and I wish I could take it back.’
While strapped down in the death chamber, Underwood apologized to Jamie’s family and his own ‘for all the terrible things I did’.
Underwood lured Jamie to his apartment in Purcell, Oklahoma, and used a cutting board to strike her head, suffocated and sexually harassed her and almost beheaded her in a bathtub. He then ditched plans to eat her.
Police were suspicious of Underwood at a checkpoint and searched his home and found Jaime’s naked body in his closet wrapped in a plastic bag.
‘I would like to apologize 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 family in a hearing last week.
The former grocery store worker’s lawyers asked that he be spared of the death penalty due to mental and other illnesses including schizotypal personality disorder, schizotypal personality, bipolar and panic disorders, autism, post-traumatic stress disorder and multiple deviant sexual paraphilias.
Prosecutors argued that mental illness does not justify hurting children.
Early Thursday, the US Supreme Court denied Underwood’s last-minute bid for a stay of execution.
Underwood’s last meal consisted of chicken fried steak, a cheeseburger with fries and ketchup, mashed potatoes and gravy, pinto beans a hot roll and soda in a prison canteen at 5.40pm on Wednesday, Oklahoma Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kay Thompson told The Independent.
Jamie’s sister, Lori Pate, expressed gratitude to prosecutors for seeing through capital punishment for Underwood.
‘This doesn’t bring our Jamie back but it does allow the space in our hearts to focus on her and allow the healing process to begin,’ said Pate.
Underwood is the 25th inmate to be executed in the country this year.
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