Alabama executes man convicted of murder

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ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man who dropped his appeals and said he deserved to die for the rape and murder of a woman in 2010 was put to death Thursday evening.

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James Osgood, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. CDT following a lethal 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.

Osgood recently told The Associated Press that he had dropped his appeals last year, adding, “I am guilty of murder.” In a letter to his lawyer explaining his decision to seek an execution date as soon as possible, he wrote that he was tired and no longer felt he was “even existing.”

“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 told AP last week.

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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 found Osgood guilty after about 40 minutes of deliberation and unanimously recommended the death sentence.

Osgood last week said he wanted to apologize to Brown’s family but he didn’t expect her relatives to forgive him. “I regret taking her from them. I regret cutting her life short,” he said.

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His initial death sentence was thrown out by an appeals court ruling that jurors were given improper instructions. At his resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked to be executed, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.

In handing down the death penalty at resentencing, the judge noted Osgood had a difficult childhood that included sexual abuse, abandonment and a suicide attempt. But the judge also said it was Osgood who cut Brown’s neck and stabbed her as she begged the couple not to hurt her.

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. A moratorium on the death penalty ended that year, and the center said the overwhelming majority of the execution volunteers since had histories of mental illness, substance abuse or suicidal ideation.

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Alison Mollman, who represented Osgood for the last decade, said in a statement that Osgood — called “Taz” by his friends _ was “more than his worst actions.”

“He made mistakes, terrible ones that he regretted until his dying day, but he didn’t make excuses for his actions. He was accountable and he was sincere. He loved with all sincerity, and the people closest to him felt that love each and every day,” said Mollman, interim legal director for the ACLU of Alabama.

The execution was the second in Alabama this year and the 14th in the nation overall.

On Feb. 6, Alabama used nitrogen gas to execute Demetrius Frazier, 52, for his conviction in the 1991 rape and killing of a 41-year-old woman. Alabama in 2024 became the first state to conduct nitrogen gas executions, putting three people to death by that method last year. It involves replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen gas through a respirator mask, causing death by lack of oxygen.

For decades, lethal injection was the preferred way to execute death row prisoners in the U.S. But recent problems procuring and administering the drugs led some states to consider alternative methods. Condemned prisoners in Alabama can choose execution by injection, the electric chair or nitrogen gas.

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