Montgomery, Ala. (AP) – A man in Alabama's death cell wants his execution to be ahead this week and says he believes at a “eye for an eye.”
“The reason I dropped my calls is that I am guilty of murder,” James Osgood told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from prison. “I am a strong proponent of, as I said in court, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I took a life so that mine was forfeited. I don't believe in sitting here and wasting everyone's time and money.”
Osgood, 55, is planned to receive a fatal injection in his prison in South Alabama on Thursday. He is one of the few a small number of prisoners in the American people of deaths to give up their legal challenges. He also said that he does not want to protest opponents of the death penalty that protests under his name.
Osgood was convicted of dying for killing Tracy Lynn Brown in 2010 in Chilton County. The prosecutors said Osgood cut her throat after he and his girlfriend had sexually abused her. Osgood told the AP that he wants to apologize – to the family of Brown and for his – but he realizes that the words are insufficient.
“I would like to say to the victim's family, my apologies, Osgood said.” I am not going to ask their forgiveness because I know they can't give it. “
Osgood said that he did not use Brown's name in discussing the murder, because he does not feel that he has the right to do this.
“I am sorry I got her from them. I am sorry I cut her life briefly,” he said. “I am sorry that I have taken one of God's children. And I regret the pain and suffering that I have caused, not only for the victim and her family, but also for mine,” Osgood said.
The family members of Brown supported the death penalty during the trial. The AP was unable to reach a member of Brown's family for comment.
Osgood is one of the two prisoners – together with Moises Sandoval Mendoza in Texas – to die this week in the midst of a slight increase in the pace of the American executions.
“I don't want to protest for me. There is no need. I don't need this. If you want to protest against executions, that's fine, just don't use my name if your platform,” he said.
Brown was found dead in her house on October 23, 2010, after her employer was delivered when she did not show up for work. She was stabbed and her throat was cut, the prosecutors said.
After Osgood was convicted in 2014 and sentenced to death, a Court of Appeal took the sentence away and ruled that a judge gave incorrect instructions to jury members. But when a new hearing started, Osgood asked for a new death penalty.
“I knew they would come back with death. I didn't want her family and my family to relive it all, only for the same. Why would you put them through it?”
Osgood has difficulty explaining what he did. He said he had drunk 36 to 48 hours for the crime, but he said that alcohol was not the fault of what he was doing. Asked what he would say to young people, Osgood said it would be nothing with someone they would not want to do.
Osgood eventually released more than a decade on the death cell. He decided early that he would let his calls go for 10 years, but no longer. He also wanted to explore that he was a bone marrow donor for his sister, but then she chose other treatments, and Osgood thought the prison would not allow him to donate. He dropped his calls last summer and asked for an execution date.
In a letter to his lawyer, he said that he no longer feels that he even exists. “I'm tired. I want to complete my sentence,” wrote Osgood.
Osgood said he thinks more prisoners in the death cell think to drop their calls, because life without conditional release is narrower than death.
“The scary thing is that you have to stay here. Look where the world is coming,” said Osgood.
