Oklahoma man Kevin Ray Underwood was put to death by lethal injection Thursday in the nation's 25th execution and the last of the year.
Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Information was provided to FOX News Digital by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (ODOC). He murdered a 10-year-old girl in 2006 as part of a cannibal fantasy.
Underwood, a former grocery store employee, admitted to luring Jamie Rose Bolin into his apartment, hitting her over the head with a cutting board, choking her and sexually assaulting her. He told investigators that he nearly decapitated Jamie in his bathtub before abandoning his plan to eat her.
His last meal was chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, pinto beans, a hot roll, a cheeseburger, fries with ketchup and a “canteen coke,” according to ODOC. He received it on Wednesday at 5:40 p.m.
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Kevin Ray Underwood appears in court for formal sentencing on April 3, 2008 in Purcell, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, Pool, File)
ODOC said Underwood chose not to have a chaplain present in the execution chamber. He chose to be sedated during the three-chemical lethal injection he received on his 45th birthday.
Local TV station KOCO said: Witnesses said Mr. Underwood apologized for his actions and to the Bolin family. He also reportedly said that executing him six days before his birthday and Christmas would be “unnecessarily cruel to his family.”
Witnesses told KOCO that no complications associated with the execution were reported.
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Oklahoma State Penitentiary entrance gate and guard post. (Shepard Charbel/CORBIS SABA/Corbis via Getty Images)
Underwood's lawyers say Underwood has a long history of abuse and serious medical conditions, including autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and schizophrenia. He argued that he deserved to be spared the death penalty because he had mental health issues. Deviant sexual paraphilia.
Prosecutors argued that many people suffer from mental illness, but that did not justify harming children.
In a last-minute request to the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution, Mr. Underwood's lawyers argued that he deserved a hearing before all five members of the board, and that the committee had given him a last-minute hearing. They argued that rescheduling the meeting violated state law and Mr. Underwood's rights. After two directors resigned. The court rejected that bid early Thursday morning.
The U.S. Supreme Court seen at dusk. A court rejected Kevin Underwood's bid to postpone his execution early Thursday morning. (Aaron Schwartz/SIPA USA)
Underwood was convicted of first-degree murder in Cleveland County on April 3, 2008. He was 28 years old when ODOC accepted him on April 7, 2008.
Oklahoma has executed 206 men and three women since 1915, according to information from ODOC State.
There are currently 32 men and one woman on death row in Oklahoma.
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“Today's events and the surrounding circumstances have affected many people, especially the family of 10-year-old Jayme Rose Bolin,” ODOC Director Stephen Harp said in a statement. “As an institution, we implemented the court’s order with the highest level of professionalism and respect for those in our custody, ensuring the dignity of all those involved in the process.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
