Oklahoma
Man dies by lethal injection in the nation’s final execution of 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma man who killed a 10-year-old girl in a cannibalistic fantasy died by lethal injection Thursday in the nation’s 25th and final execution of the year.
Kevin Ray Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, state Department of Corrections spokesperson Lance West said. It was Oklahoma’s fourth execution of the year, and it took place on Underwood’s 45th birthday.
Oklahoma uses a three-drug lethal injection process that begins with the sedative midazolam followed by a second drug that paralyzes the inmate and a third that stops their heart.
Underwood, a former grocery store worker, was sentenced to die for killing Jamie Rose Bolin in 2006. Underwood admitted to luring Jamie into his apartment and beating her over the head with a cutting board before suffocating and sexually assaulting her. He told investigators that he nearly beheaded Jamie in his bathtub before abandoning his plans to eat her.
During a hearing last week before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, Underwood told the girl’s family he was sorry.
“I would like to apologize to the victim’s family, to my own family and to everyone in that room today that had to hear the horrible details of what I did,” Underwood said to the board via a video feed from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The three board members in attendance all voted against recommending clemency.
Underwood’s attorneys had argued that he deserved to be spared the death penalty because of his long history of abuse and serious mental health issues that included autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and various deviant sexual paraphilias.
Prosecutors argued that many people suffer from mental illness, but that doesn’t justify harming children.
In a last-minute request seeking a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court, Underwood’s attorneys argued that he deserved a hearing before all five members of the board and that the panel violated state law and Underwood’s rights by rescheduling the hearing at the last minute after two members of the board resigned. The court rejected that bid earlier Thursday morning.
New Jersey
AG exceeded authority by taking over police force, court finds
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s top law enforcement official overstepped his authority last year when he took control of the police force in Paterson, the state’s third-largest city, soon after police there fatally shot a man barricaded in an apartment bathroom, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The New Jersey Appellate Division said Attorney General Matt Platkin had no authority to “supersede,” or take over, Paterson’s police force in March 2023 after the headline-grabbing death of Najee Seabrooks.
The court directed Platkin to return control of the police department to city officials and return Police Chief Engelbert Ribeiro to the city from a police training commission.
“Does the AG have the authority to directly supersede all operations of a municipal police department without the consent of the municipality?” the court asked. “We conclude the answer is no.”
The ruling was put on hold pending appeal, and Platkin vowed to take the case to the state Supreme Court.
The case provides a window into several crosscurrents involving policing, including how Platkin, a Democrat, navigates police accountability issues he’s sought to champion. The court’s decision also comes as the Biden administration puts other departments under a microscope, including Trenton’s, which it said has a pattern and practice of misconduct.
Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, a fellow Democrat, criticized Platkin’s takeover and was part of the lawsuit that prevailed on Wednesday.
The takeover stemmed from a “crisis of confidence” in police in the city, Platkin said last year. Platkin’s action came just weeks after Seabrooks’ death, though he said no single case led to the takeover.
Police were called to Seabrooks’ brother’s apartment, where he had been holed up in the bathroom. Seabrooks, who was a crisis intervention worker and mentor with the nonprofit Paterson Healing Collective, had called 911 at least seven times and told dispatchers that people were threatening him and he needed immediate help.
Police talked to him through the door, offering to get him water and calling him “love” in one instance. But the tension increased when he told police he was armed with a “pocket rocket” gun and a knife. Police shot Seabrooks when he emerged from the bathroom with a knife, according to the attorney general’s office.
Since the takeover, Platkin placed Isa Abbassi, a 25-year veteran of the New York Police Department, in charge of the department.
Platkin’s office said crime in Paterson has diminished since the takeover.
Some activists praised the takeover, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which called it a “welcome step” because of what it said was the department’s history of violent policing.
Democratic Assemblymember Benjie Wimberly, who represents the city, said he backed Platkin’s appeal.
“This setback is deeply troubling, especially after nearly two years of concerted efforts and significant investments aimed at strengthening our police department and protecting the people of Paterson,” Wimberly said in a statement.
Paterson has a population of about 160,000 and sits about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan. Its demographics shifted since the middle of the last century when most residents were white. Today, Black residents account for nearly 24% and Hispanics for just over 60% of the population.
As Paterson’s Black population grew, it found itself repeatedly clashing with the city’s white power structure, particularly its police force. Platkin said earlier this year that he wouldn’t blame residents for being distrustful of the police.
In the mid-1960s, Paterson was the site of civil unrest between police and Black residents. Paterson was also the inspiration for the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane,” about the boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a Black man who was convicted by an all-white jury in 1967 of killing three white people at a city bar. A federal judge later threw out the conviction, writing that it had been “predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason.”
Since the start of 2019, city police fatally shot four people; two others, including Jameek Lowery, have died after being restrained.
The appeals court’s ruling leaves in place Platkin’s takeover of the police department’s internal affairs unit — the group charged with investigating the department itself in certain cases. City officials did not challenge the attorney general’s takeover of that part of the department.
Man dies by lethal injection in the nation’s final execution of 2024
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma man who killed a 10-year-old girl in a cannibalistic fantasy died by lethal injection Thursday in the nation’s 25th and final execution of the year.
Kevin Ray Underwood was pronounced dead at 10:14 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, state Department of Corrections spokesperson Lance West said. It was Oklahoma’s fourth execution of the year, and it took place on Underwood’s 45th birthday.
Oklahoma uses a three-drug lethal injection process that begins with the sedative midazolam followed by a second drug that paralyzes the inmate and a third that stops their heart.
Underwood, a former grocery store worker, was sentenced to die for killing Jamie Rose Bolin in 2006. Underwood admitted to luring Jamie into his apartment and beating her over the head with a cutting board before suffocating and sexually assaulting her. He told investigators that he nearly beheaded Jamie in his bathtub before abandoning his plans to eat her.
During a hearing last week before the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, Underwood told the girl’s family he was sorry.
“I would like to apologize to the victim’s family, to my own family and to everyone in that room today that had to hear the horrible details of what I did,” Underwood said to the board via a video feed from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The three board members in attendance all voted against recommending clemency.
Underwood’s attorneys had argued that he deserved to be spared the death penalty because of his long history of abuse and serious mental health issues that included autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar and panic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizotypal personality disorder and various deviant sexual paraphilias.
Prosecutors argued that many people suffer from mental illness, but that doesn’t justify harming children.
In a last-minute request seeking a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court, Underwood’s attorneys argued that he deserved a hearing before all five members of the board and that the panel violated state law and Underwood’s rights by rescheduling the hearing at the last minute after two members of the board resigned. The court rejected that bid earlier Thursday morning.
New Jersey
AG exceeded authority by taking over police force, court finds
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s top law enforcement official overstepped his authority last year when he took control of the police force in Paterson, the state’s third-largest city, soon after police there fatally shot a man barricaded in an apartment bathroom, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The New Jersey Appellate Division said Attorney General Matt Platkin had no authority to “supersede,” or take over, Paterson’s police force in March 2023 after the headline-grabbing death of Najee Seabrooks.
The court directed Platkin to return control of the police department to city officials and return Police Chief Engelbert Ribeiro to the city from a police training commission.
“Does the AG have the authority to directly supersede all operations of a municipal police department without the consent of the municipality?” the court asked. “We conclude the answer is no.”
The ruling was put on hold pending appeal, and Platkin vowed to take the case to the state Supreme Court.
The case provides a window into several crosscurrents involving policing, including how Platkin, a Democrat, navigates police accountability issues he’s sought to champion. The court’s decision also comes as the Biden administration puts other departments under a microscope, including Trenton’s, which it said has a pattern and practice of misconduct.
Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, a fellow Democrat, criticized Platkin’s takeover and was part of the lawsuit that prevailed on Wednesday.
The takeover stemmed from a “crisis of confidence” in police in the city, Platkin said last year. Platkin’s action came just weeks after Seabrooks’ death, though he said no single case led to the takeover.
Police were called to Seabrooks’ brother’s apartment, where he had been holed up in the bathroom. Seabrooks, who was a crisis intervention worker and mentor with the nonprofit Paterson Healing Collective, had called 911 at least seven times and told dispatchers that people were threatening him and he needed immediate help.
Police talked to him through the door, offering to get him water and calling him “love” in one instance. But the tension increased when he told police he was armed with a “pocket rocket” gun and a knife. Police shot Seabrooks when he emerged from the bathroom with a knife, according to the attorney general’s office.
Since the takeover, Platkin placed Isa Abbassi, a 25-year veteran of the New York Police Department, in charge of the department.
Platkin’s office said crime in Paterson has diminished since the takeover.
Some activists praised the takeover, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which called it a “welcome step” because of what it said was the department’s history of violent policing.
Democratic Assemblymember Benjie Wimberly, who represents the city, said he backed Platkin’s appeal.
“This setback is deeply troubling, especially after nearly two years of concerted efforts and significant investments aimed at strengthening our police department and protecting the people of Paterson,” Wimberly said in a statement.
Paterson has a population of about 160,000 and sits about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan. Its demographics shifted since the middle of the last century when most residents were white. Today, Black residents account for nearly 24% and Hispanics for just over 60% of the population.
As Paterson’s Black population grew, it found itself repeatedly clashing with the city’s white power structure, particularly its police force. Platkin said earlier this year that he wouldn’t blame residents for being distrustful of the police.
In the mid-1960s, Paterson was the site of civil unrest between police and Black residents. Paterson was also the inspiration for the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane,” about the boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a Black man who was convicted by an all-white jury in 1967 of killing three white people at a city bar. A federal judge later threw out the conviction, writing that it had been “predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason.”
Since the start of 2019, city police fatally shot four people; two others, including Jameek Lowery, have died after being restrained.
The appeals court’s ruling leaves in place Platkin’s takeover of the police department’s internal affairs unit — the group charged with investigating the department itself in certain cases. City officials did not challenge the attorney general’s takeover of that part of the department.
