Kevin Underwood was executed in Oklahoma on Thursday morning — his 45th birthday — for the grisly 2006 murder of a young girl as part of a cannibalistic fantasy.
The convicted killer was executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, reportedly opting for sedatives during the process, and was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the process began.
According to the AP, while strapped down to a gurney, he apologized to his own family and the family of the victim — 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin — for “all the terrible things I did.” He also allegedly said that “the decision to execute me on my birthday and six days before Christmas was a needlessly cruel thing to do to my family” — before adding, “but I’m very sorry for what I did and I wish I could take it back.”
Following his death, the victim’s sister, Lori Pate, reportedly said, “This doesn’t bring our Jamie back but it does allow the space in our hearts to focus on her and allow the healing process to begin.”
Per FOX News, Underwood’s last meal was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, pinto beans, a hot roll, a cheeseburger and fries with ketchup and a soda.
His execution comes after a plea for clemency was rejected earlier this month; his attorney argued his history of abuse and mental health issues — including autism, PTSD and schizotypal personality disorder — should spare him from death.
He’s the fourth person to be executed in the state in 2024 … and the 25th and final person to be executed in the United States this year.
Underwood was 26 and working at a local grocery store in 2006, when Bolin vanished after going to the library.
Per his own confessional, Underwood lured the girl into his apartment, before he beat her with a cutting board, smothered her to death, sexually assaulted her body and nearly decapitated her.
He had allegedly planned to carry out his cannibalistic fantasies on the child — with investigators finding meat tenderizer and barbecue skewers he hoped to use in his apartment — before failing to follow through on them.
When FBI agents searched his apartment, they found a plastic tub in his bedroom closet. Underwood told authorities, “Go ahead and arrest me. She is in there. I chopped her up.”
He was convicted of Bolin’s first-degree murder in April 2008.
After video of his confession was shown during his clemency hearing, he said, “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.”
“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,” he said earlier this month.
