Washington, United States.- Benjamin Cole was executed after the Supreme Court rejected appeals to have him spared his life on the grounds that he suffered from a serious mental illness.
The man died by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, the local Department of Corrections said.
Cole he was on the so-called death row since 2004for murdering his nine-month-old daughter, Brianna, the subject committed the crime to silence the baby’s cries and continue playing a video game.
Local journalists said that Cole gave an incoherent two-minute speech before receiving the injection.Among his statements, he assured “Jesus is my personal lord and savior,” and urged people to “choose Jesus while he still can.”
“I forgive everyone I’ve hurt,” he murmured, according to reports.
Cole’s lawyers had appealed to the Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing that Cole suffered from a “debilitating mental illness” and that the US Constitution prohibits the execution of someone mentally incompetent.
Cole had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and brain damagehis lawyers said, and his condition had deteriorated to the point where he was “largely catatonic.”
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“Can’t handle their own basic hygiene and crawls across the cell floor if he doesn’t have a wheelchair,” they said.
But lower courts rejected claims that Cole was not mentally competent and the Supreme Court dismissed last-minute appeals for a stay of execution without comment.
According to Oklahoma authorities, “Cole’s claim of incompetence is based on experts who have had no real conversations with him about his execution,” stressing that Cole had “very clearly” expressed his understanding of his punishment.”
This is the 12th execution this year in the United States and the fourth in the state of Oklahoma which, after a pause linked to doubts about the legality of its injection protocol, has several similar procedures planned in the coming months.
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