ATMORE, Ala. (AP) 鈥� Alabama executed a man Thursday who admitted to with an ax and gun during a drug-fueled rampage in 2016 and dropped his appeals and asked to be put to death.
Derrick Dearman, 36, was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. Thursday at Holman prison in southern Alabama. He pleaded guilty to the killings that prosecutors said began when he broke into the home where his estranged girlfriend had taken refuge.
Strapped to a gurney in the Alabama execution chamber, Dearman spoke to the family members of the victims and to his own family in his final statement. 鈥淔orgive me. This is not for me. This is for you,鈥� he said to the victims鈥� families before adding, 鈥淚鈥檝e taken so much.鈥� He closed by telling his own family, 鈥淵'all already know I love y鈥檃ll.鈥� Some of his words were inaudible.
The lethal injection was carried out after Dearman dropped his appeals this year and asked that his execution go forward. 鈥淚 am guilty,鈥� he wrote in an April letter to a judge, adding that 鈥渋t鈥檚 not fair to the victims or their families to keep prolonging the justice that they so rightly deserve.鈥�
Dearman鈥檚 execution was one of two planned Thursday in the U.S. Robert Roberson was scheduled to be the nation鈥檚 first person put to death for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter. A judge granted a last-ditch request from state lawmakers to delay , and a Texas appeals court reversed the order Thursday night.
Killed on Aug. 20, 2016, at the home near Citronelle, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Mobile, were Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Robert Lee Brown, 26; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; and Chelsea Randall Reed, 22. Chelsea Reed, who was married to Justin Reed, was pregnant when she was killed. All of the victims were related by blood or marriage.
In a statement read by the Alabama prison commissioner, a man who lost his daughter, sister and brother in the killings, wrote there were no words to describe the impact the murders had on him and his family. He said Dearman got to say a final goodbye to his family, but they did not.
鈥淚 so long for a final goodbye to my daughter and I would have loved to meet my grandchild,鈥� Bryant Henry Randall, the father of Chelsea Randall Reed wrote. He said his siblings did not get to see their children grow up.
"I was stripped in many ways of happiness and the bond of family by your senseless act," he wrote of Dearman.
Robert Brown, the father of Robert Lee Brown, told reporters that his family will "suffer for the rest of their lives."
鈥淭his don't bring nothing back," he said. 鈥淚 can't get my son back or any of them back.鈥�
The execution started about 5:58 p.m., but it is unclear when the drugs began flowing. At one point, Dearman raised his head and looked around the chamber as if to inquire when they were starting. He soon after appeared to lose consciousness.
His left arm moved slightly after a guard performed a consciousness check 鈥� which involves shouting his name and pinching his arm 鈥� to make sure he is not awake when the final lethal drugs are given. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said Dearman was not awake and the arm movement was not a sign of consciousness.
When the curtains to the viewing room closed at about 6:08 p.m., his father, who was in the same viewing room as media witnesses, sobbed and repeatedly called out his son's name.
The day before the killing, Joseph Turner, the brother of Dearman鈥檚 girlfriend, brought her to their home after Dearman became abusive toward her, according to a judge鈥檚 sentencing order.
Dearman had shown up at the home multiple times that night asking to see his girlfriend and was told he could not stay there. Sometime after 3 a.m., he returned when all the victims were asleep, according to a judge鈥檚 sentencing order. He worked his way through the house, attacking the victims with an ax taken from the yard and then with a gun found in the home, prosecutors said. He forced his girlfriend, who survived, to get in the car with him and drive to Mississippi.
As he was escorted to jail, Dearman blamed the rampage on drugs, telling reporters that he was when he went into the home and that the 鈥渄rugs were making me think things that weren鈥檛 really there happening.鈥�
Dearman initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea to guilty after firing his attorneys. Because it was a capital murder case, Alabama law required a jury to hear the evidence and determine whether the state had proven the case. The jury found Dearman guilty and unanimously recommended a death sentence.
Dearman's former lawyers had questioned if he was competent to make the decision to plead guilty.
Before he dropped his appeal, Dearman鈥檚 lawyers argued that his trial counsel failed to do enough to demonstrate Dearman鈥檚 mental illness and 鈥渓ack of competency to plead guilty.鈥�
The Equal Justice Initiative, which represented Dearman in the appeal, wrote on its website that Dearman 鈥渟uffered from lifelong and severe mental illness, including bipolar disorder with psychotic features" and was executed 鈥渄espite evidence that he suffers from serious mental illness.鈥�
By Kim Chandler, The Associated Press
