A death row inmate made a statement to his victim's family before he was executed using a lethal injection.
James Osgood was put to death Thursday evening at 6:35PM CT, making him the second person executed in Alabama this year and the 14th across the United States, per USA Today.
According to Commissioner John Hamm of the Alabama Department of Corrections, it took the execution team five tries to successfully insert his IV.
His victim was 44-year-old Tracy Lynn Wilemon, a nursing home worker and mother who was rebuilding her life after a divorce.
On October 13, 2010, Osgood and his girlfriend — and Wilemon’s cousin — Tonya Vandyke, sexually assaulted and murdered her in what prosecutors described as a “twisted fantasy.”
Prosecutors said the pair attacked Wilemon in her bedroom. Both Osgood and Vandyke raped her and forced her to perform sex acts. Then, Osgood slashed her throat multiple times before stabbing her in the back.
“I remember seeing the fear in her eyes and seeing her shaking,” Osgood confessed during his police interview. “I know there was a lot of cutting involved but it wasn't a crime of violence. There was no anger involved. I was scared. She wasn't dying, so I kept cutting her throat and neck.”
He claimed he apologized during her final moments: “I told her I was sorry,” he said. “It was nothing against her. She just needed to quit fighting and go.”
Chief Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson described the murder to jurors in chilling detail: “A life was taken because James Osgood decided he wanted to fulfill some twisted fantasy to kill someone.” He added, “The same things you heard … that turned your stomach, turned him on.”
Osgood later admitted to a judge that he believed the death penalty was the appropriate sentence for his crime. “I've always been a firm believer in an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life,” he said in 2018. “If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. I screwed up. I deserve what I was given.”
Even in his final moments, Osgood remained blunt. “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,” he told the Associated Press. “I don’t believe in sitting here and wasting everybody’s time and everybody’s money.
“I’m not going to ask their forgiveness because I know they can’t give it. I regret taking her from them. I regret cutting her life short. I regret that I took one of God’s children. And I regret the pain and suffering that I caused, not only for the victim and her family, but to mine.”
He broke down in tears as the lethal injection took effect, saying simply, “Tracy, I apologize,” before losing consciousness.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey had a strong response following the execution. “The murder of Tracy Wilemon was premeditated, gruesome and disturbing, and tonight, the state carried out the death sentence of James Osgood.
“Both Mr. Osgood and his accomplice, who will never see the light of day, from the moment they were inspired by a Hollywood torture scene, set out to commit this heinous crime against Ms. Wilemon and are now paying the price.
“And let’s be clear: At the end of all of this, Mr. Osgood robbed Ms. Wilemon of her life, something that can never be reversed for her or her family. I pray that her loved ones can feel some sense of closure today.”
Vandyke, who helped commit the crime, is currently serving a life sentence in federal prison.