As reported in this AP article, an “Alabama man who dropped his appeals and said he deserved to die for a 2010 rape and murder was executed Thursday evening, using his final words to apologize to the woman he killed.” Here is more:
James Osgood, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. following a three-drug injection at a south Alabama prison, authorities said. A jury in 2014 convicted Osgood of capital murder in the death of Tracy Lynn Brown in Chilton County. Prosecutors said Osgood cut her throat after he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted her….
Brown, 44, was found dead in her home on Oct. 23, 2010, after her employer became concerned when she did not show up for work.
Prosecutors said Osgood admitted to police that he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted Brown after discussing how they had shared fantasies about kidnapping and torturing someone. The pair forced their victim to perform sex acts at gunpoint. They said Osgood then killed Brown by cutting her throat. His girlfriend, who was Brown’s cousin, was sentenced to life in prison.
The jury in 2014 took 40 minutes to convict him and unanimously recommended a death sentence. His initial death sentence was thrown out by an appeals court. At resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked for another death sentence, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the victim’s family members witnessed the execution in a separate viewing room. They chose not to make a statement to the media, he said. Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement, calling the killing “premeditated, gruesome and disturbing.”…
Osgood told AP last week he had dropped his appeals because he was guilty and thought his execution should go forward. “I’m a firm believer in — like I said in court — an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I took a life, so mine was forfeited. I don’t believe in sitting here and wasting everybody’s time and everybody’s money,” Osgood said.
The Death Penalty Information Center reported last year that 165 of the 1,650 people executed since 1977 had asked to be put to death…. The execution was the second in Alabama this year and the 14th in the nation overall.