Oklahoma Execution Marks Grim Milestone with Cannibalistic Case

Kevin Ray Underwood, executed in Oklahoma for the murder of a 10-year-old girl, marks the nation's 25th execution of the year. Convicted for a heinous crime involving cannibalistic intentions, Underwood's attorneys cited mental health issues, but clemency was denied, and his final appeal was rejected.

In a case that has drawn national attention, Kevin Ray Underwood, an Oklahoma man convicted of a horrifying murder rooted in a cannibalistic fantasy, was executed by lethal injection on Thursday. Underwood's execution marks the 25th and final capital punishment carried out in the United States this year.

Underwood, a 45-year-old former grocery store worker, confessed to luring 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin to his apartment in 2006, where he brutally beat, suffocated, and sexually assaulted her. He revealed to investigators a deranged plan to consume his victim, which he ultimately abandoned. This grim case underscored the extreme nature of his crimes.

Despite appeals citing Underwood's extensive mental health issues, which included autism and multiple personality disorders, the state's Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency. A last-minute bid for a stay of execution was also rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, sealing Underwood's fate.

(With inputs from agencies.)