As Oklahoma puts inmate to death in last U.S. execution of 2024, 'all eyes' on Biden
Oklahoma on Thursday morning carried out the nation's final execution of 2024, putting to death a former grocery store stocker convicted of murdering a 10-year-old girl in 2006.
Oklahoma on Thursday morning carried out the nation's final execution of 2024, putting to death a former grocery store stocker convicted of murdering a 10-year-old girl in 2006.
The execution of Kevin Ray Underwood by lethal injection, which was conducted on his 45th birthday, came after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected his request for clemency last week in the death of his young neighbor, Jamie Rose Bolin. The decision, although expected, was notable: This year is the first since 2016 without any state granting clemency to an individual sentenced to death, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
In an annual report on death sentence and execution trends released Thursday, the center underscores how expanding frontiers among death penalty use this year have unfolded amid a pivotal political moment for President Joe Biden, who last week granted the most commutations and clemencies in a single day for nonviolent offenders. A coalition of anti-death penalty advocates has sent letters urging him to commute the sentences of all 40 federal death row inmates before President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House.
Biden, who had campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty, placed a moratorium during his term; Trump has said he would expand the federal death penalty.
"All eyes are on President Biden right now," said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
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