An Alabama death row murderer Derrick Dearman was killed by lethal injection eight years after murdering five people with an axe and a revolver during a drug-fueled spree.
Derrick Dearman, 36, issued a final statement to his victims’ families and his while strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber, acknowledging, “I’ve taken so much.”
He had appealed against the execution until April of last year, when he changed his mind, telling a judge that “it’s not fair to the victims or their families to keep prolonging the justice that they so rightly deserve.”
Dearman was pronounced dead at 6.14 p.m. on Thursday at Holman Prison in southern Alabama.
“Forgive me. This is not for me. This is for you,” he said to the victims’ families before adding, “I’ve taken so much.” He closed by telling his own family, “I love y’all.”
In 2016, he began his rampage by breaking into the home where his estranged girlfriend had sought refuge and attacked everyone inside with an ax before snatching a revolver.
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Dearman’s execution was one of two set for Thursday in the United States.
Robert Roberson was about to be the nation’s first person executed for a murder conviction linked to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome in the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, but a court accepted Texas lawmakers’ request to postpone his execution.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office was anticipated to promptly file an appeal of the judge’s order.
Dearman was Alabama’s fifth execution in 2024. Two were carried out with nitrogen gas. The other two were executed via lethal injection, which remains the state’s principal technique.
Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Joseph Adam Turner, 26; Robert Lee Brown, 26; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; and Chelsea Marie Reed, 22 died on August 20, 2016, in their house near Citronelle, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Mobile.
Chelsea Reed, Justin Reed’s wife, was pregnant when she was killed. Turner, who was married to Randall, shared the house with the Reeds. Brown, Randall’s brother, was also present on the night of the murders.
Dearman’s girlfriend has survived. Turner and Randall had their three-month-old son with them when they were attacked, but the infant was not hurt.
According to a judge’s sentence decision, the day before the death, Dearman’s girlfriend’s brother, Joseph Turner, brought her to their home when Dearman became aggressive to her.
Derrick Dearman had visited the house many times that night, seeking to see his lover, but was informed he could not stay. He returned after 3 a.m., when all of the victims were asleep, according to a judge’s sentence decision.
He worked his way through the house, hitting the victims with an ax stolen from the yard and later a gun discovered inside, according to authorities. He pushed his girlfriend, who survived, to join him in the car and travel to Mississippi.
Dearman surrendered to authorities at his father’s request, according to a judge’s sentencing decision from 2018.
Dearman blamed the rampage on drugs as he was led to jail, telling reporters that he was high on methamphetamine when he entered the residence and that the “drugs were making me think things that weren’t really there happening.”
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