A “nefarious” Oklahoma inmate facing the death penalty for torturing and murdering a young girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy admitted he deserved death during a hearing where his final plea for clemency was denied.
Kevin Ray Underwood, 44, appeared before the state's Pardons and Parole Board on Friday, more than a decade after he was convicted of murdering 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin, in a unanimous vote to pardon him. They voted unanimously against it and made offensive comments.
Underwood lured the child, who was a neighbor, to Purcell's apartment, then hit him over the head with a cutting board and suffocated him in 2006.
He admitted that the gruesome murder of little Jamie in the bathtub, in which he almost decapitated her, was part of a twisted cannibalistic and sexual fantasy, but did not end up eating the girl. Ta.
He reportedly said at the time that he tried to have sex with her corpse as part of a sick fantasy.
“I don't want to die, but I recognize that what I did deserved to die,” he said Friday in a video from prison. According to The Oklahoman. “And if my death…could change my behavior, I would gladly die.”
Underwood also apologized to the victim's family and his own family.
“I can't believe I did that,” he continued.
“The person I was in the weeks leading up to what happened is not the person I am today.”
Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised the board's vote to deny clemency “for this heinous monster” and assured that justice will be served for Jamie Rose Bolin.
Underwood's defense team claims that Underwood has numerous mental health issues, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and deviant sexual paraphilias. He argued that he should not be sentenced to death because of his death.
The assistant attorney general rejected the idea that mental health issues should not excuse brutal acts.
“Mr. Underwood chose Jamie because he thought she was small and defenseless and would be easy prey,” Aspen Laman said.
“And while we, as an enlightened society, can give reprieve to those who suffer from mental illness, we can still restrain them from planning the murder, rape, torture and cannibalism of a 10-year-old girl. You can expect.”
Mr. Underwood will receive a lethal three-drug injection on Thursday, the 25th and final execution scheduled to take place in the United States this year.
The date is scheduled for the day after Joseph Corcoran was killed by lethal injection in Indiana in July 1997, killing four people, including his brother and sister's fiance.
with post wire
