McALESTER, Okla. — A 57-year-old Oklahoma man is scheduled to obtain a deadly injection on Thursday for killing his 9-month-old daughter in 2002, regardless of claims by his attorneys that he’s mentally ailing and never competent to be executed.
Attorneys for Benjamin Cole don’t dispute that he killed Brianna Cole by forcibly bending the toddler backward, breaking her backbone and tearing her aorta, however argue that he’s each severely mentally ailing and that he has a rising lesion on his mind that has continued to worsen whereas he has been in jail.
Cole has refused medical consideration and ignored his private hygiene, hoarding meals and residing in a darkened cell with little to no communication with employees or fellow prisoners, his attorneys informed the state’s Pardon and Parole Board final month throughout a clemency listening to.
“His situation has continued to say no over the course of this 12 months,” Cole’s legal professional Katrina Conrad-Legler mentioned.
The panel voted 4-1 to disclaim clemency, and a district decide earlier this month decided Cole was competent to be executed. A final-minute attraction filed with the U.S. Supreme Courtroom in search of to halt his execution was denied on Wednesday.
Cole has a lesion on his mind, which is separate from his analysis of paranoid schizophrenia, that has grown in measurement in recent times and impacts the a part of his mind that offers with drawback fixing, motion and social interplay, Conrad-Legler has mentioned.
Attorneys for the state and members of the sufferer’s household informed the board that Cole’s signs of psychological sickness are exaggerated and that the brutal nature of his daughter’s killing benefit his execution.
Assistant Lawyer Basic Tessa Henry mentioned Cole killed his daughter as a result of he was infuriated that her crying from her crib interrupted his taking part in of a online game.
“He isn’t severely mentally ailing,” mentioned one other prosecutor, Assistant Lawyer Basic Ashley Willis. “There may be nothing within the structure or jurisprudence that forestalls his execution.”
Prosecutors famous that the toddler had quite a few accidents according to a historical past of abuse and that Cole had beforehand served time in jail in California for abusing one other youngster.
Board members additionally heard emotional testimony from members of the family of the slain youngster’s mom, who urged the board to reject clemency.
“The primary time I bought to see Brianna in individual was mendacity in a casket,” mentioned Donna Daniel, the sufferer’s aunt. “Are you aware how horrible it’s to see a 9-month-old child in a casket?
“This child deserves justice. Our household deserves justice.”
Oklahoma Lawyer Basic John O’Connor mentioned in a press release that he’s assured Cole is sufficiently competent to be executed.
“Though his attorneys declare Cole is mentally ailing to the purpose of catatonia, the very fact is that Cole absolutely cooperated with a psychological analysis in July of this 12 months,” O’Connor mentioned. “The evaluator, who was not employed by Cole or the State, discovered Cole to be competent to be executed and that ‘Mr. Cole doesn’t at the moment proof any substantial, overt indicators of psychological sickness, mental impairment, and/or neurocognitive impairment.’”
Cole’s execution could be the sixth since Oklahoma resumed finishing up the demise penalty in October 2021.
