Alabama executes man convicted in 2010 rape, murder of girlfriend's cousin

Alabama death-row inmate James Osgood was executed Thursday for the 2010 rape and murder of his girlfriend's cousin. Osgood's execution took place at Atmore, Alabama's William C. Holman Correctional Facility. Photo courtesy Alabama Department of Corrections
Alabama death-row inmate James Osgood was executed Thursday for the 2010 rape and murder of his girlfriend's cousin. Osgood's execution took place at Atmore, Alabama's William C. Holman Correctional Facility. Photo courtesy Alabama Department of Corrections

April 24 (UPI) -- Alabama on Thursday executed James Osgood, a man who asked for death to atone for the rape and murder of his girlfriend's cousin in 2010, making him the 14th death row inmate to be killed this year.

Osgood was executed by lethal injection at Alabama's William C. Holman Correctional Facility, in Atmore. Attorney General Steven Marshall cleared the execution to commence at 6:12 p.m. EDT. Osgood was pronounced dead at 6:35 p.m., the Alabama Department of Corrections told UPI in an emailed statement.

Ahead of being strapped to the gurney, he had a last meal of pizza after after refusing lunch but was seen eating breakfast and snacks earlier in the day, UPI was told.

He had 11 visitors throughout Thursday and one phone call. On Wednesday, he received 12 visitors and took seven phone calls.

Osgood, also known as Taz, was sentenced to death for killing Tracy Lynn Wilemon, whose legal last name was Brown, on Oct. 13, 2010. Her family now prefers that her birth name, Wilemon, be used.

His attorney, Alison Mollman, the Alabama legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement published after her client was executed that Osgood knows that while no words can repair the harm he caused, he hopes that his decision to volunteer for execution will bring his victim's family closure.

"Those of us who loved Taz will remember him as a man who was more than his worst actions. Like. Taz, we will not make excuses for the harm he caused, but we will remember the good we saw in him. We will remember Taz the person, not James Osgood the 'criminal,'" Mollman said in a statement.

"We will remember that actions may be evil or bad, but people are not. People are redeemable."

Osgood confessed to police after initially denying the crime and was convicted in 2014.

Due to a jury instruction error, the case was scheduled for a retrial when Osgood decided to waive it during jury selection.

His death sentence was reimposed by a circuit court in 2016.

Osgood said during a resentencing hearing in 2018 that he believed in "an eye for an eye."

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. I screwed up. I deserve what I was given," he said.

One prosecutor on the case called the crime a "twisted fantasy."

Chief Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson said during remarks to jurors that Osgood took a life because "he wanted to fulfill some twisted fantasy to kill someone."

Wilemon was attacked by Osgood and his girlfriend, Tonya Vandyke, on Oct. 13, 2010, in a bedroom.

Vandyke and the victim were cousins. Osgood slashed and stabbed his victim to death after raping her.

In a graphic description during his confession to Chilton County Sheriff's Department detectives, Osgood said: "I remember seeing the fear in her eyes and seeing her shaking. 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."

Osgood had an abusive childhood and his drug-addicted sex worker mother was murdered when he was an infant. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital as a teen, according to court records.

"Tonight, my heart and prayers are with Tracy's family," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. "No one should have to endure the pain they've carried or relive the horror of her tragic and senseless death."

Wilemon's family declined to issue a statement.

Osgood was the second person to be executed in Alabama following the state's lethal punishment of Demetrius Frazier by nitrogen gas in early February for the 1991 rape and murder of 41-year-old Pauline Brown.

Osgood was killed a day after Texas put to death Moises Sandoval Mendoza for the 2004 brutal murder of 20-year-old mother Rachelle Tolleson.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 34 execution dates have been scheduled in nine states for this year.

In 2024, a total of 25 death row inmates were killed in the United States.

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