MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama plans to carry out its fifth execution of the year on Thursday, just three weeks after the Alabama Department of Corrections put Alan Eugene Miller to death at the end of September using nitrogen gas.
Derrick Dearman, 36, was convicted in 2018 on 10 counts of capital murder for his role in the death of five individuals: Robert Lee Brown, Chelsea Reed, Justin Reed, Joseph Adam Turner, and Shannon Randall. Chelsea Reed was pregnant at the time of her death.
Dearman withdrew his remaining appeals in April and wrote letters to Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall asking that the state move forward with his execution.
“I’m willingly giving all that I can possibly give to try and repay a small portion of my debt to society for all of the terrible things that I’ve done,” Dearman said in a statement sent Monday, Oct. 14. “From this day forward, I hope that the focus will not be on me, but rather on the healing of all the people that I’ve hurt.”
Dearman is set to be executed by lethal injection.
“Derrick Dearman is no hero,” said Pastor Jeff Hood, Dearman’s spiritual advisor, in a statement Monday. “But as his execution approaches, I think we can all respect what he’s trying to become: more human.”
Dearman was convicted of the Aug. 19, 2016 murders of the five people in the house, where his estranged girlfriend was staying. According to court documents, Dearman then drove his estranged girlfriend and the infant of one of the victims to his father’s house in Mississippi, where he released them. Dearman later turned himself into the police in Greene County, Mississippi.
Dearman agreed to plead guilty to five counts of capital murder because he committed them during a burglary, as well as a second set of five counts of capital murder because “the victims were murdered by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct,” according to court documents.
If carried out, the execution will tie Alabama with Texas for conducting the most executions in 2024.
It will be the third time this year that the state will put someone to death by lethal injection. Miller and Kenneth Eugene Smith, executed in January, were put to death by nitrogen gas. Jamie Ray Mills, executed in May, and Keith Edmund Gavin, executed in July, were both put to death by lethal injection.
Alabama plans to execute Carey Dale Grayson by nitrogen gas in November.
There have been 19 executions in the United States this year.
