A murderer apologised for the rape and killing of a woman – but was still executed on death row minutes later.
James Osgood, 55, yesterday received a lethal injection at a jail for the murder of Tracy Lynn Brown, who he forced to perform sex acts at gunpoint. Strapped to a gurney and wearing a tan prison uniform on Thursday evening, Osgood used his last words to apologise from the crime.
Looking at the victim’s family members, the killer said: “I hadn’t said her name since that day. Today will be the first time I said it. Tracy, I apologise.” He then cried as he slowly lost consciousness at the jail in Atmore, Alabama, after the injection.
Speaking to reporters in the weeks before the execution, Osgood admitted he deserved to die. He said: “I am guilty of murder… 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… I regret taking her (Ms Brown) from them (Ms Brown’s family). I regret cutting her life short
In a letter to his lawyer explaining his decision to seek execution as soon as possible, Osgood wrote he was tired and no longer felt he was “even existing.”
Ms Brown was found dead in her home in Chiltern County, Alabama, on October 23, 2010 after her employer became worried when she didn’t show up for work. Prosecutors said Osgood admitted to police he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted Ms Brown, aged 44, 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 Ms Brown by cutting her throat. His girlfriend, who was Ms Brown’s cousin, was sentenced to life in prison.
The jury found Osgood guilty after about 40 minutes of deliberation and unanimously recommended the death sentence. His initial death sentence was thrown out by an appeals court ruling that jurors were given improper instructions. At his resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked to be executed, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.
In handing down the death penalty at resentencing, the judge noted Osgood had a difficult childhood that included sexual abuse, abandonment and a suicide attempt. But the judge also said it was Osgood who cut Ms Brown’s neck and stabbed her as she begged for her life.
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.
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