Nov. 30 – The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board Oklahoma will meet Wednesday to decide on clemency for a death row inmate scheduled to be executed for the 2006 murder of a 10-year-old girl in Purcell.
Kevin Ray Underwood, 44, will be executed by lethal injection in the death chamber of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary on December 19, his birthday.
A Cleveland County jury sentenced Underwood to death for acting on his fantasies of cannibalism and killing Jamie Rose Bolin in his apartment on April 12, 2006.
He admitted to investigators during an interview that he lured the girl to his apartment to play with his rat. While watching a cartoon series, he admitted to hitting the girl in the back of the head with a cutting board before choking her.
Underwood also admitted that he attempted to sexually assault the girl’s body and attempted to remove her head with a knife.
The man said he was then “disgusted with himself” and did not eat the girl as he intended to fulfill his fantasy.
Bolin was found in a plastic container in Underwood’s apartment by an FBI agent.
“Go ahead and arrest me,” Underwood told the officer. “She’s in there. I beat her and chopped her to pieces. I’m going to burn in hell.’
Underwood’s attorneys say in their clemency package that Underwood was bullied at school, had mental health issues and was addicted to pornography. According to the package, his father humiliated him while his mother was short-tempered.
“We hope you will try to view Kevin holistically, including what he has been through and who he could have been if he had received the right care,” they wrote.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asks the Council to deny clemency for Underwood.
“Kevin Underwood is a deeply evil monster who committed an unthinkable murder that took a 10-year-old child from her parents and loved ones,” Drummond said. “The death penalty is the only appropriate punishment in this case and I urge the Pardon and Parole Board to reject clemency and ensure justice for Jamie.”
Attorneys for Underwood filed a lawsuit earlier this year challenging the constitutionality of the state’s execution protocol, arguing that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections policy could be changed at any time without legislative oversight, making it unconstitutional.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court denied the challenge in October.
Underwood was originally scheduled to be executed on December 7, 2023, before the AG’s office requested more time between executions to reduce the workload for Oklahoma Department of Corrections employees.
