Oklahoma Gears Up for the Nation’s 25th and Final Execution of 2024

OKLAHOMA CITY—Oklahoma is set to execute a man who was convicted of murdering a 10-year-old girl, marking the country’s 25th and final execution for the year.

Kevin Ray Underwood is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday, coinciding with his 45th birthday, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Underwood, previously a grocery store employee, was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of Jamie Rose Bolin, which was driven by a cannibalistic fantasy.

Underwood confessed to luring Jamie to his apartment, striking her with a cutting board, then suffocating and sexually assaulting her. He informed investigators that he nearly decapitated her in his bathtub before discarding his intention to consume her.

The state of Oklahoma administers a lethal injection protocol involving three drugs, starting with the sedative midazolam, followed by a drug to paralyze the inmate, stopping their breathing, and concluding with a drug that halts the heart.

During a recent hearing before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, Underwood expressed remorse to the victim’s family.

“I want to extend my apologies to the victim’s relatives, my own family, and everyone in this room who had to hear the horrible accounts of what I did,” Underwood stated to the board via video link from the penitentiary.

All three board members present at last week’s session voted against clemency for Underwood.

His legal team argued that he should be spared execution due to his extensive background of abuse and severe mental health conditions, which include autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and various deviant sexual behaviors.

“The mental deviance that led Underwood to kidnap, beat, suffocate, sexually assault, and nearly decapitate Jamie cannot simply be attributed to depression, anxiety, or (autism),” prosecutors responded in opposition to Underwood’s clemency plea. “Underwood is a threat because he is intelligent, methodical, and motivated by deviated sexual impulses rooted in the suffering and exploitation of others.”

In a last-ditch effort to delay the execution, Underwood’s attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that he deserves a forum before the full five-member parole board and that the panel contravened state law and Underwood’s rights by altering the schedule of its hearing at the last moment following the resignation of two board members.

By Sean Murphy