OKLAHOMA EXECUTES KEVIN RAY UNDERWOOD FOR 2006 MURDER OF 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL
Oklahoma carried out the execution of Kevin Ray Underwood, 45, for the 2006 murder of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin, marking the state’s 25th and final execution of the year. Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, coinciding with his birthday. It was the fourth execution in Oklahoma in 2022.
Underwood, a former grocery store worker, lured Jamie into his apartment where he beat her over the head with a cutting board before sexually assaulting and suffocating her. He later admitted to investigators that he had considered beheading Jamie and consuming her flesh, but abandoned the plan before carrying it out. Prosecutors described the killing as premeditated and chillingly calculated.
During a hearing before Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board last week, Underwood apologized to the victim’s family and others affected by his crime via a video feed from prison. “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,” he said. The three board members present unanimously voted against recommending clemency.
Underwood’s attorneys argued for a stay of execution, citing his extensive history of childhood abuse and a host of serious mental health issues, including autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and deviant sexual paraphilias. They contended that these conditions should have been considered as mitigating factors in sentencing.
Prosecutors countered that mental illness does not excuse the sexual assault and murder of a child, noting the severity of the crime and the danger to the public.
A last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court sought to halt the execution, arguing that Underwood was denied proper procedural protections when the state parole board rescheduled his hearing after two members resigned, limiting him to a hearing before only three members. The Supreme Court rejected the request Thursday morning, allowing the execution to proceed as scheduled.
Oklahoma employed its three-drug lethal injection protocol for the execution, beginning with the sedative midazolam, followed by a paralytic agent, and concluding with a drug to stop the heart.
Underwood’s execution closes a case that has drawn national attention for both its extreme violence and the complex questions surrounding mental illness, mitigating factors, and the death penalty.
⚖️ Brutal murder of a 10-year-old. Planned cannibalistic act abandoned. Execution carried out despite mental health claims and last-minute appeals.
