Oklahoma executed Kevin Ray Underwood for the 2006 murder of a 10-year-old

McALESTER – The 25th and final execution of 2024 in the United States took place Thursday when a known child murderer was executed on his birthday at Oklahoma State Prison.

Kevin Ray Underwood, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m

“I want to apologize again for all the terrible things I have done,” he said from the execution gurney. “I hate that I did those things and I wish I could take them back.”

After he finished his last words, he blinked quickly and a tear rolled down his face.

Eight more states carried out executions in 2024, including Indiana on Wednesday for the first time in 15 years. Underwood was the fourth inmate executed in Oklahoma this year.

He was given a lethal injection for the murder of a 10-year-old neighbor, Jamie Rose Bolin, in his Purcell apartment in 2006. The victim’s older sister, Lori Pate, said afterward, “This doesn’t bring our Jamie back, but it creates the space in our hearts to focus on her and begin the healing process.”

The grocer hit Jamie over the head with a cutting board on April 12, 2006, then suffocated her. He was 26 years old at the time of the crime. Two days later, the FBI found the girl’s nearly decapitated body in a plastic tub in his bedroom closet.

He confessed that he had been preparing for months to put his sexual and cannibalistic fantasies into action. He said he chose Jamie, whose nickname was “Coppertop,” because she was a convenient victim.

In his confession, he said his original plan was to cut off his victim’s head and put it on his desk “so he could watch me.” He said he wanted to keep the body in his bed, “sleep with it and have sex with it for a day or two” before butchering and cooking it.

He said he tried to have sex with Jamie’s body but abandoned his plan to cook and eat him.

His lawyers described him as a mentally ill genius who gave in to his fantasies after becoming addicted to Internet pornography. They also said he was a victim of bullying.

His diagnoses since his arrest included autism spectrum disorder. “Ultimately he lost his ability to distinguish fantasy from reality,” said Kim Spence, an expert on the disorder who examined Underwood for more than 11 hours in prison.

Jurors at a 2008 trial quickly found him guilty of first-degree murder. They initially disagreed 10-2 about punishment, but after eight hours they came to a unanimous decision on a death sentence.

Witnessing the execution along with the victim’s family was District Attorney Greg Mashburn, who prosecuted Underwood in the Cleveland County District Court trial.

“Today, justice was served for Jamie,” said Mashburn, who announced Wednesday that he will retire March 1. “It’s just like I told the jury. The death penalty in Oklahoma is reserved for the worst of the worst. And this case was just that.” “

More:Gov. Kevin Stitt occupies the final spot on the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-0 on Dec. 13 not to recommend a pardon. Attorney General Gentner Drummond and his aides had told the panel that Underwood’s crimes “remain among the most depraved and notorious in Oklahoma history.”

The execution continued shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his emergency request for a stay. His lawyers had complained that his clemency hearing was unfair because it did not take place before a full five-member board.

In his final days it was controversial whether he truly regretted what he had done. When he was caught, he had told the FBI: “I will burn in hell.”

At his clemency hearing, he apologized for his crimes. “I realize that even if I don’t want to die, I deserve it for what I did,” he said via video feed from prison. “And if my death…could change what I did, I would gladly die.”

But prosecutors described him as ruthless and manipulative. They showed the pardon and parole board a recent message he had sent to an acquaintance. “What I did does not burden me and does not constantly torment me in the way that the state would like, also because I have virtually no memory of the event,” he wrote on November 12th.

The execution was completed within 10 minutes without any problems and Underwood had previously been cooperative, said Steven Harpe, executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

“It was really textbook for us,” Harpe told reporters.

Underwood received his last meal at 5:40 p.m. Wednesday and was given Xanax Wednesday evening and again Thursday morning, Harpe said. He said sedatives are offered to all prisoners facing execution, but they are rarely taken.

Underwood’s final meal consisted of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, pinto beans and a hot roll, a cheeseburger and fries, reporters were told.

Reporters from The Associated Press, The Oklahoman, The Norman Transcript and two Tulsa television stations observed the execution for the media

“I have now witnessed a number of executions. And I would say the process seemed to move faster than usual,” said KOTV reporter Reagan Ledbetter.

According to Department of Corrections statistics, 210 state prison executions have been carried out in Oklahoma since executions began in 1915.

In an annual report released Thursday, the Death Penalty Information Center said 2024 would be the 10th consecutive year in the United States with fewer than 30 executions.

The nonprofit also said that in 2024 (as of Dec. 16), only 10 states had new death sentences. There were none in Oklahoma.

The fact that Underwood’s execution was scheduled for his birthday was a coincidence, due in part to the fact that the execution only took place on Thursdays. Two years ago, death row prisoner Richard Fairchild was also executed on his birthday.

In his final words, Underwood called the decision to hold the execution on his birthday and six days before Christmas “an unnecessarily cruel act toward my family.”

While he was strapped to the stretcher, he glanced more than once at his mother, Connie Underwood. He apologized to both his family and the victim’s family.

Protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion in the cold on Thursday morning. “We mourn Jamie and Kevin and the senseless loss of their lives,” the Rev. Don Heath, chairman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said after the execution.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals will schedule the next execution after being informed of Underwood’s death. Next on the list is Wendell Grissom, who was convicted of murder for a fatal 2005 shooting during a burglary at a rural Blaine County home.

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Oklahoma executed Kevin Ray Underwood for the 2006 murder of a 10-year-old

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