The 14th Execution of 2025
An Alabama man, James Osgood, 55, who dropped his appeals and said he deserved to die for a 2010 rape and murder was executed on the evening of April 24, 2025, using his final words to apologize to the woman he killed, reported The Associated Press.
Osgood was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m. following
a three-drug 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.
Strapped to a gurney and wearing a tan prison uniform,
Osgood used his last moments to speak about his victim.
“I haven’t said her name since that day,” Osgood said,
adding that was because he was unsure if he should say it. “Tracy, I
apologize.”
The curtains opened to the witness room at 6:09 p.m. It was
unclear what time the injection began. As the execution got underway, Osgood
looked toward family members seated in a witness room. Family and friends cried
quietly as he lost consciousness.
His breathing became deep and labored and his head fell back
on the gurney at about 6:15 p.m. His breathing was no longer visible by about
6:18 p.m. Several minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
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 in 2014 took 40 minutes to convict him and
unanimously recommended a death sentence. His initial death sentence was thrown
out by an appeals court. At resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked for another
death sentence, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.
Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the victim’s
family members witnessed the execution in a separate viewing room. They chose
not to make a statement to the media, he said.
Gov. Kay Ivey issued a statement, calling the killing
“premeditated, gruesome and disturbing.”
“I pray that her loved ones can feel some sense of closure
today,” the governor said.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said “my heart and
prayers are with Tracy’s family.”
“No one should have to endure the pain they’ve carried or
relive the horror of her tragic and senseless death,” Marshall added.
Osgood told AP last week he had dropped his appeals because
he was guilty and thought his execution should go forward.
“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 said.
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.
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,” said Mollman, 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.
Osgood picked lethal injection. Hamm said it took a total of
five attempts to get the two required IV lines connected to Osgood.
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