OAN’s Brooke Mallory
9:39am – Thursday, April 11, 2023
An Alabama death row inmate convicted of murdering five people, including a pregnant mother, has been serving his sentence for nearly six years. However, he now claims he urged authorities to execute him.
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Derrick Dearman, 35, a native of Greene County, Mississippi, said it was time for “justice to be served” and that his execution would be “the right thing to do.”
“I don’t want to die,” Dearman said. CNN in a phone interview Friday. “However, I feel in my heart that this is the only option that will help the victim’s family get the closure they need in order to move forward.”
“I agree with my decision.”
According to a sentencing order filed in the case, Dearman broke into Citronelle’s home in the small town of Alabama in the early morning hours of Aug. 20.th2016. Utilizing a shotgun, an axe, and a .45 pistol, he roamed through the home and attacked each of the five residents, who were high on hard drugs, one by one.
Those killed by Dearman were Shannon Melissa Randall, Robert Lee Brown, Justin Caleb Reed, Joseph Adam Turner, and Chelsea Marie Reed, who was five months pregnant. Technically, if you count Reed’s unborn child, he killed six people.
Dearman left the scene with the two victims’ young sons and his ex-girlfriend. He then turned himself in to the local police after committing the crime.
August 31stcent, in 2018, he entered a guilty plea to capital murder. The jury recommended the death penalty. The sentencing for Dearman said his parents testified that their son’s “long-term substance abuse was a central issue in his son’s life.”
Dearborn said she initially tried to contest the verdict, but did so to protect her family and wanted them to keep fighting.
“As part of my family, they have the right to seek gifts. [the] As a father, I do not want my son to die, so please give me the opportunity to seek relief from the sentence I have been sentenced to,” Dearman told reporters. “What they saw was a drug addict. What they saw was a man who literally lost his mind. He was in a fetal state mentally,” he added. .
When Dearman filed his first appeal in October 2018, he told his family he would allow several years to appeal. However, his conviction was upheld when the Alabama Supreme Court denied his appeal of the sentence in February.
Nearly five and a half years after his conviction, Dearman insists the conflict has been resolved in his mind.
“It’s time to do what we know is right, what we know we have to do,” he said. “My family’s rights have been secured. It’s time for the victims and their families to get what’s right for them and what they deserve, and that’s justice.”
Dearman said he fired the Equal Justice Initiative attorney who was representing him in the appeals process on April 4.th. Dearman said. CNN He said he sent several letters to the state’s attorney general and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R-Alabama) requesting that the death sentence be carried out.
A lawmaker named Amanda Priest told reporters that a letter was sent to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office.
On August 17, three days before the murders, Dearman was at the residence helping dismantle a metal trailer.th. But the ruling said Dearman’s attitude and actions “made at least one resident of the home feel uncomfortable.”
Ultimately, Shannon Randall, who has a 3-month-old son, said she didn’t want Dearman to live in “the same house as a toddler,” but that she could still use the space and continue working there. Ta.
He left in George County, Mississippi, about 15 minutes across the state line, and returned to the home he shared with his girlfriend. That night, he took methamphetamine and began acting aggressive, according to court documents.
His girlfriend left the next day.
Mr. Dearman then returned to another home in hopes of speaking to his girlfriend. My girlfriend was a friend of one of the residents and she often stayed there. But he was told to go. Randall returned three more times that night, and Randall’s spouse, Joseph Adam Turner, called police.
According to the ruling, police kept watch outside the house, but left at 3 a.m. when their shifts were due to change.
Late in the morning, Dearman walked back one last time. He then admitted to detectives that he had taken meth again and then broke into the home.
The sentencing statement said Dearman became irritated and “demanded of her.” [his girlfriend] Please stay and talk to him,” and he refused to leave.
After leaving the house again, he returned with an ax he had taken from a nearby tree. Dearman then quickly moved through the house and attacked several sleeping residents with his weapon.
Turner and Randall, parents of a young son, were the first targets.
Dearman then took a .45 pistol from one of the victims and shot him dead. He also used another shotgun in the attack, according to his sentencing order.
“After the initial attack was completed, the defendant carefully shot each victim to ensure death,” according to court filings.
The verdict said he killed his parents and then ordered his partner to take the boy and follow him. The judgment described the assaults as “particularly heinous” and “brutal” and said each victim was unconscious for a period of time after the severe assaults.
Dearman then told his father what had happened earlier that day, and he was persuaded to turn himself in to police.
Dearman said. CNN On Friday, he said the reality of his crimes began to sink in after he was jailed and allowed to eat, sleep and get drugs out of his system. He then began to “converse with God” and realized, he claimed. That the loss of his life is the price he must bear.
Dearman stressed that his choice was “not for my own benefit” and admitted that although he had considered it, he did not want to add to the suffering of the victims.
“From my point of view, there is nothing I can say or do that will make this right. I myself feel indebted to the crimes that I committed,” Dearman told reporters. “That’s the only way I can show that I’m truly remorseful, that I truly have a conscience.”
Dearman said he also understands that some may doubt his ability to make difficult choices.
“Yes, I’m sure I’m sane. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have thought about the victim’s family and their feelings, my family and their feelings. “We don’t think about how people view the death penalty,” he continued.
“I feel in my heart that this is the only option that will help the victim’s family get the closure they need to move forward.”
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