...
By Jon Jackson and Matthew Impelli
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
What's New
Kevin Underwood died by lethal injection in Oklahoma on Thursday in the nation's 25th and final execution of the year.
Underwood was accused of intending to eat a 10-year-old girl he killed in 2006. He was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. local time at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson said.
Read More on News
Why It Matters
Support for the death penalty in 2024 remains at a five-decade low, according to polling firm Gallup. Fifty-three percent of Americans say they are in favor of the death penalty in 2024, a decline from 80 percent 30 years ago.
What To Know
Underwood is a former grocery store worker and faced the death penalty for the 2006 killing of Jamie Rose Bolin.
Underwood admitted to luring Jamie into his apartment, striking her over the head with a cutting board and suffocating her before sexually assaulting her. He told investigators he nearly decapitated her in his bathtub but ultimately abandoned his plan to cannibalize her.
Underwood's attorneys previously argued that he should be spared the death penalty due to a long history of abuse and severe mental health conditions, including autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and various deviant sexual paraphilias.
During a clemency hearing, prosecutors countered that while many people experience mental illness, it does not excuse harming children.
...
What People Are Saying
At a hearing before the state's Pardon and Parole Board last week, Underwood apologized to the girl's family.
"I would like to apologize to the victim's family, to my own family and to everyone in that room today that had to hear the horrible details of what I did," Underwood said in a live feed video from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
After Underwood was denied clemency, Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a statement saying: "I am pleased the board voted to deny clemency for this deeply evil monster and ensured that justice will be delivered for Jamie Rose Bolin."
Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty detailed the hearing in a statement sent to Newsweek.
"There was much pain in the hearing room today, precipitated by barbaric violence to a 10-year-old girl," Reverend Don Heath, chair of the coalition, said. "Kevin Underwood acknowledged the pain he caused the Bolin family, his family and everyone affected by the murder. The Bolin family shared their continuing pain."
What's Next
The execution of Underwood on Thursday brings the number of inmates put to death across the country in 2024 to 25.
It comes as President Joe Biden is being urged to commute the sentences of inmates on federal death row amid concerns that President-elect Donald Trump could see a spike in executions once he returns to office in January. Thirteen inmates were put to death in an unprecedented spree of federal executions during the final months of Trump's first term.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
Update 12/19/24 1:05 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with further information.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines