25 April 2025 :
April 24, 2025 - Alabama. James Osgood, 55, White, was executed on April 24
Osgood volunteered
Osgood had been sentenced to death in 2014 (see HoC 12/05/2014 and 13/06/2014) for raping and killing Tracy Brown, a 44-year-old white woman, on October 13, 2010. Osgood confessed to the crime in a recorded interview with investigators. Osgood's then-girlfriend, Tonya Van Dyke, white, who was 43 at the time and a cousin of the victim, was also charged with complicity in the same crime. She also pleaded guilty at the 2015 trial and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
He was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. He was put to death using the state’s three-drug lethal injection method, after he declined to choose death by nitrogen gas when Alabama allowed that swap in 2018.
Osgood walked into the execution chamber having volunteered to die with no appeals to any court. He had been on Alabama’s Death Row for more than 10 years for the rape and slaying of Tracy Lynn Brown.
In his last words, Osgood apologized for the crime.
“I have not said her name since that day,” Osgood said at 6:11, strapped to the gurney after the death warrant was read.
Osgood said that he hasn’t uttered his victim’s name because he didn’t have the right to, but he now felt disrespectful not to name her. Today would be the first time he said it.
“Tracy, I apologize,” he said.
The curtain opened to the execution viewing rooms at 6:09 p.m.
After apologizing to his victim, Osgood made remarks to his family and friends who were viewing the execution.
At 6:12 p.m., Osgood was sitting up on the gurney, making motions with his hands and fingers that signaled “1, 4, 3.” Two minutes later, he appeared to ask something of the guards inside the execution chamber that was inaudible to viewing rooms.
At 6:15 p.m., Osgood laid his head against the gurney. He breathed deeply for several minutes, until a prison worker performed a standard consciousness check consisting of yelling Osgood’s name, pinching his arm and flicking his eyelid. Osgood did not respond to the motions.
He appeared to stop breathing at 6:18 p.m.
The curtains to the viewing room closed at 6:25 p.m., and his official time of death was 6:35 p.m.
At a press conference after the execution, Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the execution team had to stick one of Osgood’s arms four times to establish the intravenous line for the lethal injection drugs. He said Osgood’s veins were compromised in that arm, but the team did just one stick for the other IV line in the other arm.
Family of the victim did witness the execution, but wished to remain anonymous. Five of Osgood’s loved ones witnessed, too.
Osgood’s last meal was pizza, according to a statement from the Alabama Department of Corrections. He had breakfast and snacks but refused his lunch tray.
Osgood met with 11 people on Thursday, including his daughter and sister, other family members, friends, and a lawyer. He also spoke to one other person by phone.
On Wednesday, Osgood had met with a dozen people and ate breakfast but refused his other meals. He also spoke with seven people by phone that day.
Osgood becomes the 2nd person to be executed this year in Alabama, the 80th since the state resumed executions in 1983, the 14th inmate put to death this year in the USA, and the n° 1,621 overall since the nation resumed executions in 1977
https://www.al.com/news/2025/04/an-eye-for-an-eye-alabama-to-execute-man-who-volunteered-to-die.html
