Alabama executed a death row inmate accused of murdering five people, including a pregnant mother, in 2016.
Derrick Dearman, 36, died from a lethal injection at the William C Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, where the state jails and executes death row convicts. His time of death was 6.14 p.m. CT.
He requested a seafood platter as his final meal.
Prior to his execution, Dearman had written many letters to Alabama officials, including one in April to Attorney General Steve Marshall, demanding that his death sentence be carried out.
“It is not fair to the victims or their families to continue to delay the justice they so rightly deserve,” Dearman wrote in a note to Marshall. “I am guilty and was fairly sentenced to death.”
Earlier this year, the inmate dismissed his appeal counsel at the Equal Justice Initiative. According to the non-profit, Dearman had a major mental disorder.
Dearman was sentenced to death for the 2016 murders of Joseph Adam Turner, 26, Robert Lee Brown, 26, Chelsea Marie Reed, 22, Justin Kaleb Reed, 23, and Shannon Melissa Randall, 35, in Mobile County. Reed was 5 months pregnant.
He pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in August 2018. A jury eventually sentenced him to death.
Dearman had consumed a considerable amount of methamphetamine and had not slept in six days before the murders. According to the non-profit, he started hearing voices and became certain that someone were “after” him.
He was in a relationship with Turner’s sister, Laneta Lester. She was staying with her brother and his wife, Randall, in Citronelle after fleeing the house she shared with Dearman because he had begun abusing her when under the influence.
Dearman visited the residence but was asked to leave. He apparently returned three more times that evening, prompting the brother to notify authorities.
Police patrolled the neighborhood around the house but halted at 3 a.m. due to a shift change. Dearman then returned on foot for the fourth time.
Dearman broke into their home on the morning of August 20 through two closed sliding glass doors.
He was equipped with an axe he had stolen from Randall’s front yard. Dearman repeatedly struck Brown in the head with the axe while he slept in the living room recliner. He then went to the bedroom shared by Turner, Randall, and their three-month-old son. Dearman whacked Turner numerous times in the head with the axe before striking Randall.
He then entered another bedroom occupied by Chelsea and Justin Reed. Dearman hit both of them with the axe. He and Justin had a brief disagreement about a rifle that Justin owned. Dearman obtained the gun and shot Justin, Chelsea, and Turner. Dearman then shot Randall in the back of the head while she lay in bed with her kid.
Dearman walked into the living room and ended the rampage by shooting Brown in the head.
The infant and Lester were unharmed in the incident.
Dearman drove to Mississippi and turned himself in at the request of his father, along with his girlfriend and kid. Dearman claimed he tried to defend his appeal for the sake of his family.
During a news conference after Chelsea Reed’s execution, Alabama Prison Commissioner John Hamm read a message from her father, Bryant Henry Randall. Someone could be heard weeping in the background.
“Today, this world says goodbye to an individual who took away my only daughter and unborn grandchild,” wrote Shannon’s brother, Bryant Randall. “I would have wanted to meet my grandchildren. I was really excited to be a grandparent.”
Brown’s father, Robert Ford Brown, also spoke following the execution. He claimed he forgave Dearman before his execution. “I feel pity,” he remarked. “This is the worst crime ever committed in Mobile County.”
Marshall issued a news statement announcing the man’s execution, claiming that his plea to cease appeals and proceed with the execution was in the best interests of the families.
“The gruesome facts of this case deserved the ultimate punishment,” Marshall remarked after the execution. “Dearman mercilessly hit his victims with an axe, leaving them conscious and suffering for long time before killing each at close range.
“Dearman showed no pity and no mercy.”
The inmate’s remains will be released to the Escambia County Coroner and taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for a postmortem assessment.
Reference:
Alabama executes man who killed five, including pregnant woman, and welcomed his own death sentence