Death row killer used last words to finally apologise to victim before lethal injection
A death row murderer in the US finally apologised to his victim and her family shortly before dying by lethal injection.
James Osgood, 55, and his girlfriend forced Tracy Lynn Wilemon to perform sex acts at gunpoint before Osgood killed the 44-year-old by cutting her throat.
He was convicted for the 2010 rape and murder four years later and sentenced to death.
Osgood was pronounced dead at 6.35pm yesterday following a three-drug injection at a prison in Atmore, Alabama, authorities said.
He used his last moments to speak about Ms Wilemon.
‘I haven’t said her name since that day,’ Osgood said. ‘Today will be the first time I said it. Tracy, I apologise.’
He then looked towards friends and family in the witness room and cried as he slowly lost consciousness.
Ms Wilemon was found dead in her home after her employer became concerned when she didn’t show up for work.
Prosecutors said Osgood admitted to police that he and his girlfriend, Tonya Vandyke, sexually assaulted Brown after discussing how they had shared fantasies about kidnapping and torturing someone.
His girlfriend, who was Ms Wilemon’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. But at resentencing in 2018, Osgood asked for another death sentence, saying he didn’t want the families to endure a further 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.
Governor 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,’ he added.
Before the execution, Wilemon’s step-sister, Trish Jackson, told USA Today that her family planned to attend.
She said she’d be travelling to Alabama from Southern California with her mum, ‘Just to know that he will be no more.’
‘She didn’t deserve this. No one does. She was very loved … She deserved to have the greatest life and flourish,’ Ms Jackson said.
Ms Jackson said Wilemon had just gone through a divorce and was restarting her life when she was killed.
She said her step-sister, whose surname was legally Brown when she died, had been saving up money to visit her daughter in Arizona when the attack happened.
Last week Osgood said 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,’ he 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.
The center said the overwhelming majority of the those 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 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.
Osgood picked to die by lethal injection. Hamm said it took a total of five attempts to get the two required IV lines connected to him.
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