A man on Alabama's death row wants his execution to go forward Thursday, saying he believes in an "eye for an eye." "The reason I dropped my appeals is I am guilty of murder," James Osgood told the AP in an telephone interview from prison. "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. I don't believe in sitting here and wasting everybody's time and everybody's money." Osgood, 55, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at his south Alabama prison.
He's one of only a small number of inmates on US death rows to abandon their legal challenges. He also said he doesn't want opponents of the death penalty protesting under his name. Osgood was condemned to die for the 2010 killing of Tracy Lynn Brown in Chilton County. Prosecutors said Osgood cut her throat after he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted her. Osgood told the AP that he wants to apologize—to Brown's family, and to his own—but he realizes the words are inadequate. "I'm not going to ask their forgiveness because I know they can't give it," he said.
Osgood said he doesn't use Brown's name when discussing the murder because he doesn't feel he has the right to do so. "I regret taking her from them. I regret cutting her life short," he said. "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," Osgood said. Brown's relatives supported the death sentence at trial. Osgood is one of two prisoners—along with Moises Sandoval Mendoza in Texas—scheduled to die this week amid a slight uptick in the pace of US executions.
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Osgood ended up spending more than a decade on death row. He decided early on that he would let his appeals go for 10 years, but no longer. He dropped his appeals last summer and asked for an execution date. In a letter to his lawyer, he said he no longer feels as if he's even existing. "I'm tired. I want to complete my sentence," Osgood wrote. He said he thinks more death row inmates are thinking about dropping their appeals, because life without parole is scarier than death. "The scary thing is having to stay here. Look what the world is coming to," Osgood said.
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