An Oklahoma panel on Friday denied a clemency request for a man convicted of torturing and killing a 10-year-old girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy, setting the stage for him to become the 25th and final person executed in the U.S. this year.
Three members of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously voted against granting clemency to Kevin Ray Underwood, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday, his 45th birthday. Joseph Corcoran, an Indiana man, is set to be executed Wednesday for the 1997 murders of four men, marking the first execution in Indiana in 15 years.
Underwood was convicted of murdering 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin in 2006. The girl, a neighbor at his Purcell apartment complex, was lured into Underwood’s apartment where he beat her with a cutting board before suffocating her to death.
In a videotaped confession shown to the board on Friday, Underwood admitted that the killing was part of a cannibalistic fantasy and revealed that he had nearly decapitated the girl in his bathtub before abandoning his plan to eat her.
“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,” Underwood said during his video testimony from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. “I can’t believe I did those things. The person I was in the weeks leading up to that event is not who I am now.”
Underwood’s attorneys argued that he should be spared the death penalty due to his long history of abuse and serious mental health issues, including autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and various deviant sexual paraphilias.
His mother, Connie Underwood, tearfully appealed to the board for mercy, saying, “I can’t imagine the heartache the family of that precious girl is living with every single day. I wish we understood his pain before it led to this tragedy.”
Assistant Attorney General Aspen Layman urged the board to reject clemency, calling Underwood’s crime “one of the most notorious and depraved murders in Oklahoma history.”
“Mr. Underwood chose Jamie because he thought she was small and defenseless and easy prey,” Layman said. “While we can give grace to those struggling with mental illness, we still expect them to refrain from planning the murder, rape, torture, and cannibalism of 10-year-old little girls.”
Several members of Bolin’s family also urged the board to deny clemency. The girl’s father, Curtis Bolin, was scheduled to testify but became overcome with emotion, holding his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, I can’t,” he said.
Underwood is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. If his execution proceeds as planned, it will be Oklahoma’s fourth of the year and the 25th nationwide, with Corcoran’s execution also scheduled for next week.
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