The man in the Alabama death row hopes his execution will move forward this week, and he says he believes in the “eye and eye.”
“The reason I dropped the lawsuit is that I committed the murder,” James Osgood told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the prison. “I don’t believe I’ll sit here and waste everyone’s time and everyone’s money because I’m asking for my eyes, my teeth for my teeth, as I said in court.”
Osgood, 55, is due to receive a fatal injection at South Alabama prison on Thursday. He is one of the few prisoners on the US death row to abandon their legal challenges. He also said that opponents of the death penalty did not want to protest in his name.
Osgood was accused of killing Tracy Linbrown in Chilton County in 2010. Prosecutors said Osgood cut her throat after he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted her. Osgood told the AP that he wanted to apologise to Brown’s family and himself, but he found his words inadequate.
“I want to tell the victims’ families, I apologize, Osgood said.
Osgood said he would not use Brown’s name when discussing murder.
“I regret taking her from them. I regret shortening her life,” he said. “I regret taking one of God’s children, and I regret the pain and suffering I caused. Not just for the victim and her family, but for me,” Osgood said.
Brown’s relatives supported the death penalty at the trial. The AP could not contact Brown’s family members for comment.
Osgood, along with Moises Sandoval Mendoza of Texas, is one of two inmates, and is due to die this week amid a slight increase in the pace of US executions.
“I don’t want to protest. There’s no need. I asked for this. If you want to protest the execution, it’s fine. Don’t use my name as a platform,” he said.
Brown was found dead at his home on October 23, 2010. She was stabbed and her throat was cut off, prosecutors said.
After Osgood was convicted and sentenced to death in 2014, the Court of Appeal abandoned the verdict and held that the judge had given the ju judge inappropriate instructions. However, when the new sentence hearing began, Osgood sought another death sentence.
“I knew they were coming back to death, and I didn’t want her and my family to relive everything.
Osgood has a hard time explaining what he did. He said he was drinking for 36-48 hours of crime and should not blame him for what he did. Osgood was asked what the youngsters would say and said he would not do anything to someone he didn’t want to do it himself.
Osgood spent more than 10 years on death row inmates. He decided early that he would take his appeal for 10 years, but no longer pleaded. He also wanted to explore being a bone marrow donor for his sister, but then she chose other treatments, and Osgood thought the prison would not allow the donation anyway. He dropped his appeal last summer and called for an execution date.
In a letter to his lawyer, he said he didn’t feel like he existed anymore. “I’m tired. I want to complete the sentence,” Osgood wrote.
Osgood said the prisons think more death row inmates are thinking of dropping their complaints.
“The scary thing is that you have to stay here. Look at what the world is coming,” Osgood said.
