Death row inmate Kevin Ray Underwood denied clemency
An Oklahoma death row inmate who was described as a "deeply evil monster" was denied clemency Friday.
Kevin Ray Underwood, 44, is set to be executed Thursday − on his birthday − at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-0 against clemency after hearing chilling excerpts of his confession to murdering his 10-year-old neighbor, Jamie Rose Bolin, at his Purcell apartment in 2006.
In a tearful two-minute statement Friday, Underwood apologized.
"I recognize that although I do not want to die ... I deserve to for what I did," he said via a video feed from the penitentiary. "And if my death could ... change what I did, I would gladly die.
"It is true that I have blocked out most memory of that day," he also said. "When I do think about it, it causes me great pain. I cannot believe that I did ... those things. The person that I was in the weeks leading up to that event is not who I am now or was before that."
The grocery store stocker hit Jamie over the head with a cutting board and then suffocated her on April 12, 2006. He was 26 at the time of the crime. The FBI found the girl's nearly decapitated body in a plastic tub in his bedroom closet two days later.
He confessed that he had prepared for months to carry out his sexual and cannibalistic fantasies.
In an excerpt from his confession played at the clemency hearing, he said his original plan was to cut off his victim's head and set it on his desk "so it could like watch me." He said he wanted to keep the corpse in his bed, "sleeping with it and having sex with it for a day or two," before butchering and cooking it.
He said he did try to have sex with Jamie's body but abandoned his plan to cook and eat it.
Assistant Attorney General Aspen Layman told the board that Underwood chose Jamie because he thought she was "a latchkey kid that nobody would miss ... at least not right away."
"He underestimated just how much Jamie's family loved her, and would not rest until she was found," the assistant attorney general said. "He was trapped, surrounded by the constant vigil of her father and other family members right outside.
"If it wasn't for the vigilance and unfaltering love of Jamie's family, Mr. Underwood would have gotten away with this, and he would have done it again."
The victim's family asked the board to deny clemency. In an emotional moment, Jamie's father, Curtis Bolin, tried to address the board via video. "I just want to state that, you know, it's missing ... I'm sorry I can't. I can't," he said, putting his head in a hand.
In asking for mercy, Underwood's attorneys portrayed him as a mentally ill genius who gave in to his fantasies after being bullied as a child and becoming addicted to internet pornography.
"Doctors and other specialists have diagnosed him with a range of different disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, hormone imbalance, panic disorder, paraphilia, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, social phobia, and others," attorney Brendan Van Winkle said.
"Other experts have simply said that Kevin's struggles go beyond what current psychology can diagnose," Van Winkle said. "Ultimately, we're here today because Kevin lost his battle with his mental health problems.."
After the meeting, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he was pleased the board "voted to deny clemency for this deeply evil monster and ensured that justice will be delivered for Jamie Rose Bolin."
Underwood will be the fourth inmate put to death in Oklahoma this year. The execution by lethal injection is set to begin at 10 a.m. Thursday.
The Pardon and Parole Board is supposed to have five members. It is down to four after two recent resignations and the appointment of one replacement.
The clemency hearing was canceled twice. It went forward Friday with three members after a federal appeals court lifted a temporary stay. Underwood had claimed in court he was entitled to a clemency hearing before a full board.
Acting Chairman Richard Miller, board member Robert Reavis and new board member Susan Stava were the ones who were present. Absent was Kevin Buchanan.
Gov. Kevin Stitt could have commuted the death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole if the board had recommended clemency. He has done so only once. The governor cannot spare Underwood since the board did not make a recommendation.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)