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A 55-year-old man was executed on Thursday in Alabama, having requested to be put to death for the rape and murder of a woman in 2010.
James Osgood was executed by lethal injection at a prison located in Atmore, as reported by the Alabama Department of Corrections. Osgood was found guilty of raping, stabbing, and killing 44-year-old Tracy Lynn Brown, with assistance from his girlfriend, according to a report by USA Today.
The girlfriend, who had a familial relation to Brown, is currently serving a life sentence for her involvement in the crime, as stated by the newspaper.
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit organisation that opposes the death penalty, issued a statement indicating that Osgood had chosen not to appeal his death sentence and had requested in a letter for his life to be terminated.
EJI claimed that Osgood did not receive a fair trial and that the courts overlooked multiple mitigating factors, including Osgood’s previous admission to a psychiatric hospital, prior suicide attempts, as well as experiences of sexual abuse, malnutrition, and being abandoned by his parents at birth.
The organisation also shared a photograph of Osgood displaying a dent in his head, which resulted from being struck by a baseball bat.
Since the start of this year, the United States has executed 14 individuals: 10 by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and two through nitrogen gas, which the United Nations and experts have condemned as inhumane.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 out of the 50 states in the US, while three states—California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania—currently have moratoriums in effect.
