Oklahoma State Penitentiary officials carried out the execution of Kevin Ray Underwood on December 19, 2024 — his 45th birthday — ending a decades‑long legal process in one of the state’s most notorious child murder cases. Underwood had been sentenced to death for the 2006 killing of Jamie Rose Bolin, his 10‑year‑old neighbor in Purcell, Oklahoma, after admitting to luring her into his apartment and violently attacking her as part of a “cannibalistic fantasy.”
Underwood’s crimes drew national attention for their brutality. Prosecutors said he beat Bolin over the head with a cutting board, suffocated and sexually assaulted her before attempting to behead her in his bathtub and abandoning his plan to eat her. He confessed detailed intent during his arrest and at trial, which led a jury to convict him of first‑degree murder and recommend the death penalty in 2008.
The execution took place around 10:04 a.m. using Oklahoma’s three‑drug lethal injection protocol, beginning with a sedative, followed by a paralytic and a final drug to stop the heart. Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. after visibly losing consciousness.
In his final statement, Underwood apologized to Bolin’s family and to his own, acknowledging the pain he caused and calling his execution on his birthday and close to Christmas “needlessly cruel” for his family, though he said he was sorry for his actions.
Underwood’s attorneys had argued in clemency hearings that his abusive childhood and multiple diagnosed mental health issues — including autism, bipolar and panic disorders and other conditions — warranted mercy, but the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected that plea. A last‑minute request to stay the execution filed with the U.S. Supreme Court was also denied earlier the same day.
Witnesses to the execution included members of Bolin’s family. Her sister, Lori Pate, said afterward that while the outcome could not bring Jamie back, it would help create “space in our hearts to focus on her and allow the healing process to begin.”
The execution of Underwood marked Oklahoma’s fourth of 2024 and the nation’s final lethal injection of the year. The case remains a stark example of prolonged capital punishment litigation and the challenges prosecutors, defense attorneys and families face in high‑profile violent crime cases.
