Updated at 9:45 a.m.: The Supreme Court of the United States has denied a final stay for Kevin Underwood. His execution is scheduled for 10 a.m. central time.
The State of Oklahoma is set to execute convicted murderer Kevin Underwood Thursday morning.
Underwood, 44, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for the 2006 murder of 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin. Underwood admitted to law enforcement that he murdered Bolin to act out his cannibalistic fantasies, including rape and decapitation.
Underwood’s team spent last week pushing to postpone his clemency hearing in court after the resignation of two members of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board. Underwood’s legal team argued a hearing with fewer than all five members was a violation of his rights to due process and for a fair clemency hearing.
After a brief stay implemented by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit prompted a third clemency hearing to be scheduled, the stay was lifted and Underwood’s motion denied.
Underwood was unanimously denied clemency by the Pardon and Parole Board Dec. 13.
“ I know that nothing I say here today will change what I did,” he said at the hearing. “I recognize that although I do not want to die, I recognize that I deserve to for what I did. And if my death could change… If my death could change what I did, I would gladly die.”
On the eve of the execution, District Attorney Greg Mashburn, who tried Underwood in the 2008 trial, announced his retirement.
“As I prepare to leave this role as a career prosecutor, I remain confident that the foundation we have built together will endure,” Mashburn said in a statement. “I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition for my successor and will do everything I can to support their success in continuing the vital work of this office.”
Mashburn said serving Cleveland, Garvin, and McClain counties for the past 18 years has been the “honor of a lifetime” and he is “profoundly grateful” for the trust Oklahomans have given him during his tenure.