A convicted ax murderer, Derrick Dearman, will be executed by lethal injection in Alabama, marking the fifth execution in the state this year. Governor Kay Ivey made the announcement on Tuesday.
Dearman, 35, was convicted of killing five people in 2016 during a drug-fueled rampage in Citronelle, Alabama. Among the victims were his then-girlfriend’s friends and family, including a pregnant woman and her unborn child.
Earlier this year, Dearman fired his attorneys and chose to end all appeals of his conviction and death sentence. He stated, I was fairly tried and convicted. I agreed with the court’s decision. He added that despite his mental state during the crime, innocent lives were lost, and the crime was committed.
Governor Ivey announced that Dearman will be executed between midnight on October 17 and 6 a.m. on October 18. Dearman chose lethal injection over the controversial method of nitrogen hypoxia, recently introduced in Alabama.
In a letter to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office last month, Dearman expressed frustration that other death row inmates were being executed before him. He wrote, I have done everything required to drop my appeals and have my sentence carried out… What is the hold-up?
Dearman’s crimes occurred after he became abusive towards his girlfriend, Laneta Lester. The day before the killings, Lester’s brother took her to his home in Mobile County for safety. Dearman repeatedly showed up at the house but was not allowed inside.
In the early morning of August 20, 2016, Dearman broke into the home, picked up an ax from the yard, and attacked five people as they slept. He then forced Lester and a 3-month-old child into a car and drove to his father’s house in Mississippi.
The victims were Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Robert Lee Brown, 26; Chelsea Marie Reed, 22; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; and Shannon Melissa Randall, 35. Chelsea Reed was pregnant with her first child, and the 3-month-old boy was the son of Turner and Randall.
Dearman surrendered the next day and admitted to authorities that he was under the influence of drugs during the killings, stating, If I was sober, that would have never happened.
Dearman was sentenced to death in 2018 and is set to be the fifth person executed in Alabama this year.