Alabama executed an inmate Thursday evening after he volunteered to die for his crime – the 2010 slaying and rape of a Chilton County woman. In his last words, he apologized for the slaying.
James Osgood was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, just miles from the Florida state line. He was put to death using the state’s 3-drug lethal injection method, after he declined to choose death by nitrogen gas when Alabama allowed that swap in 2018.
Osgood walked into the execution chamber having volunteered to die with no appeals to any court. He had been on Alabama’s death row for more than 10 years for the rape and slaying of Tracy Lynn Brown.
In his last words, Osgood apologized for the crime.
“I have not said her name since that day,” Osgood said at 6:11, strapped to the gurney after the death warrant was read.
Osgood said that he hasn’t uttered his victim’s name because he didn’t have the right to, but he feels disrespectful not to name her. Today would be the 1st time he said it.
“Tracy, I apologize,” he said.
Execution
The curtain opened to the execution viewing rooms at 6:09 p.m.
After apologizing to his victim, Osgood made remarks to his family and friends who were viewing the execution.
At 6:12 p.m., Osgood was sitting up on the gurney, making motions with his hands and fingers that signaled “1, 4, 3.” Two minutes later, he appeared to ask something of the guards inside the execution chamber that was inaudible to viewing rooms.
At 6:15 p.m., Osgood laid his head against the gurney. He breathed deeply, for several minutes, until a prison worker performed a standard consciousness check consisting of yelling Osgood’s name, pinching his arm and flicking his eyelid. Osgood did not respond to the motions.
He appeared to stop breathing at 6:18 p.m.
The curtains to the viewing room closed at 6:25 p.m., and his official time of death was 6:35 p.m.
Shortly after the execution, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey released a statement.
“The murder of Tracy Wilemon (Brown) was premeditated, gruesome and disturbing, and tonight, the state carried out the death sentence of James Osgood,” Ivey said.
“Both Mr. Osgood and his accomplice – who will never see the light of day – from the moment they were inspired by a Hollywood torture scene, set out to commit this heinous crime against Ms. Wilemon (Brown) and are now paying the price. And let’s be clear: At the end of all of this, Mr. Osgood robbed Ms. Wilemon (Brown) of her life, something that can never be reversed for her or her family. I pray that her loved ones can feel some sense of closure today.”
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also issued a brief statement, noting that a jury had found him guilty and had unanimously recommended the death penalty.
“Tonight, my heart and prayers are with Tracy’s family. No one should have to endure the pain they’ve carried or relive the horror of her tragic and senseless death,” Marshall stated. “I want them to know that the State of Alabama stands with them. We are unwavering in our commitment to seek justice, not only to hold the guilty accountable, but to honor the dignity of every victim and restore peace to the communities they leave behind.”
Osgood met with 11 people Thursday, including his daughter, sister, other family members, friends, and a lawyer. He also spoke to 1 other person by phone.
On Wednesday, Osgood had met with a dozen people and ate breakfast but refused lunch and dinner. He also spoke with 7 people by phone that day.
The 55-year-old Shelby County man was convicted of murder and a jury unanimously voted for him to die in 2014. But years later, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed his sentences on a procedural error and sent the case back to a Chilton County judge.
During a new penalty-phase hearing, Osgood said he didn’t want a jury to decide his fate and asked the judge to return him to death row.
Ahead of his scheduled execution, Osgood asked there be no petitions for clemency on his behalf and no requests to the governor to spare his life, according to Esther Brown, the executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty. (Esther Brown is not related to the victim).
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He also asked there be no protests against his execution.
“It’s his decision,” Esther Brown said. “I don’t think he wants us to make excuses for him, I don’t think that is how he sees it… he feels that what he did was wrong and that its just that, a life for a life.”
The case
At the 2018 resentencing, Chilton County Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds asked Osgood to explain why he was forgoing a jury deciding his penalty.
“I’ve always been a firm believer on an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. Okay. I screwed up. I deserve what I was given,” Osgood told the judge, according to court records.
“When I was told by the appeal court that this was coming back for a resentence, I was worried because my worry was the jury would come back with a life without [parole], and I didn’t want that. I remember when I was sentenced the things you told me, the manner in which you told me. So I took it that if I put it in your hands again, I would get the same sentence which would be death.”
The judge replied: “Is that what you are knowingly asking me for?”
Osgood was originally convicted in 2014. A jury took less than an hour to find him guilty of capital murder.
At the second sentencing, the victim’s sister spoke: “This coming back here has been such a disservice to our ongoing fight for Tracy. It has been a disservice for proper closure and what we have been through to have to come back today,” she said, according to court records.
“The focus should never, never be on minimizing the actions and the crime that that man did. He took the life of Tracy. He isn’t embracing accountability. That I know. This isn’t about him being accountable. He is looking to escape his punishment. That is my opinion. He’s a monster and his plans for killing Tracy were horrendous and torturous. For his actions, in my opinion, he deserves the death penalty. No mercy. I feel this is just punishment.”
The crime
The judge’s original sentencing order laid out the crime.
Tracy Lynn Brown got a ride on her off day to pick up her paycheck on Oct. 13, 2010 with her cousin, Tonya Vandyke and Vandyke’s boyfriend, Osgood. The three did a few other errands and returned to the trailer where Brown lived.
When they got inside, Osgood attacked Brown and dragged her to the bedroom. He raped Brown, and ordered Vandyke to hold Brown at gunpoint. Brown tried to escape at one point, but Osgood grabbed her and continued to rape her.
At some point during the rapes, court records state that Osgood slit Brown’s throat from behind. He then stabbed her twice in the back.
Brown’s body was found later by her landlord.
Osgood was identified as a suspect, along with his girlfriend, and was taken into custody. He confessed to police.
According to an earlier appeal from Osgood, he and Vandyke were “swingers who had sexual encounters with people outside their relationship,” and wanted to have sex with Brown. His lawyers described the situation as a consensual sexual encounter “that quickly spun out of control” and left Brown dead.
His appellate lawyers argued in 2022 that Osgood was encouraged by previous lawyers to waive his jury resentencing after he was frustrated with the way things were going. They described his “horrific abuse as a child,” and noted several ex-girlfriends who wanted to testify that Osgood was always a good man toward them.
Vandyke pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Scheduled execution
Unlike most Alabama death row inmates, going into his execution day Osgood does not have any pending appeals and is not waiting on a court to decide his fate.
Esther Brown, a longtime activist against capital punishment, said the situation is complicated. “As a death row organization, we do need to respect somebody’s wishes” she said. “As an anti-death penalty organization, we are against all killing.”
She said she believes all lives are sacred.
“He did decide to give up his petitions and that is his right to do. And we respect that.”
Osgood’s attorney, Alison Mollman, has represented him for the last decade. Mollman, the Legal Director of the ACLU of Alabama, released a statement following Osgood’s death.
“When I became an attorney, I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Inherent in that solemn pledge was my personal commitment to provide effective legal representation to each of my clients, regardless of the severity of the offense or their guilt. I became James Osgood’s appellate attorney because of that oath, but I remained his attorney and close friend for over a decade because of his humanity,” she said.
“Mr. Osgood was known by his loved ones as ‘Taz,’ and by his beloved sister as his childhood nickname, ‘Jimmy.’ He was short in stature but had a big personality and an even bigger sense of humor. He was self-deprecating and didn’t take himself seriously. He loved to laugh and to make others laugh. He sought to bring joy to those in his orbit and grieved when he caused harm. He made mistakes, terrible ones that he regretted until his dying day, but he didn’t make excuses for his actions. He was accountable and he was sincere. He loved with all sincerity, and the people closest to him felt that love each and every day. I know this, because I was one of those fortunate people.”
Mollman added, “Those of us who loved Taz will remember him as a man who was more than his worst actions. Like Taz, we will not make excuses for the harm he caused, but we will remember the good we saw in him. We will remember Taz the person, not James Osgood the ‘criminal.’ We will remember that actions may be evil or bad, but people are not. People are redeemable.”
— Osgood becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Alabama and the 80th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on April 22, 1983. Only Texas (594), Oklahoma (128), Virginia (113), Florida (109) and Missouri (101) have carried out more executions since the US Supreme Court allowed executions to resume via its July 2, 1976 Gregg v Georgia decision.
— Osgood becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,621st overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
Source: al.com, Staff, Rick Alperin, April 24, 2025
"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
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