An Alabama man set to be executed Thursday for the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend's cousin has dropped all his appeals, fired his attorney and says he's ready to die for what he did.
James Osgood and his girlfriend were convicted of the 2010 murder of Tracy Lynn Brown after attacking and raping her in what one prosecutor said was one of the grizzliest crimes he'd ever seen.
While Osgood initially denied killing Brown, he eventually confessed to police, telling them he remembered "seeing the fear in her eyes."
"I've always been a firm believer in an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life," Osgood said during a 2018 resentencing hearing. "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime. I screwed up. I deserve what I was given."
Defense attorneys at trial argued that investigators used trickery to elicit a confession, though they never argued that Osgood was innocent.
Chief Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson told jurors that "a life was taken because James Osgood decided he wanted to fulfill some twisted fantasy to kill someone."
"He enjoyed it," Robinson said during his closing statement, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network. "The same things you heard ... that turned your stomach, turned him on."
What did James Osgood do?
On Oct. 13, 2010, James Osgood and his girlfriend Tonya Vandyke attacked Tracy Brown in her bedroom, he confessed to police.
Vandyke and Brown were cousins who grew up together in Southern California, Brown's stepsister, Trisha Jackson, told USA TODAY, saying the crime shocked their entire family and caused a rift that would never be repaired.
Both Osgood and Vandyke raped Brown and forced her to perform sex acts on them, according to Osgood's confession. Osgood slashed Brown's throat a number of times before stabbing her in the back.
"I remember seeing the fear in her eyes and seeing her shaking," Osgood said during his confession to investigators with the Chilton County Sheriff's Department. "I know there was a lot of cutting involved but it wasn't a crime of violence. There was no anger involved. I was scared. She wasn't dying, so I kept cutting her throat and neck."
Throughout the horrific last moments of Brown's life, Osgood said he apologized.
"I told her I was sorry," he said. "It was nothing against her. She just needed to quit fighting and go."
During Osgood's sentencing, the Advertiser reported, the trial judge told him: "I can't think of a darker set of facts than what you have given us."
Osgood was sentenced to death while Vandyke is serving life in federal prison.
Who is James Osgood?
Osgood, 55, had a childhood riddled with pain and abuse, and never knew his biological mother, who was a drug-addicted sex worker murdered when Osgood was a baby, according to court records.
Osgood was malnourished as an infant, sexually abused by a man at a bar as a child, had sexual encounters with other children at the age of 9, fathered a child with a 24-year-old woman when he was 14, and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital as a teen, court records say.
During that time, Osgood was passed from foster family to foster family. He attempted suicide at least once and was diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder, records say.
During his trial, his sister testified that about the neglect and abuse they both experienced as children. Osgood wiped away tears as she spoke, the only emotion Osgood showed throughout his trial, the Advertiser reported.
Tracy Brown's family to witness execution
Tracy Brown's stepsister and stepmother, who both attended every moment of Osgood's trial, told USA TODAY that they were traveling to Alabama from where they live in Southern California to witness the execution.
Both women said they've been able to forgive Osgood and hope that he has found God. But that doesn't mean they disagree with his sentence.
"He's deserving of this," said Brown's stepsister, Trish Jackson. "I struggled with whether I believe in the death penalty or do not but I've come to the conclusion that it's God's will. Proper due process was held and this is all God's doing."
As for her stepsister, Jackson said she was a beautiful woman inside and out who was working hard to rebuild her life "from zero" following a divorce.
She left behind a daughter who "was her everything," and has missed the birth of a grandson and granddaughter, Jackson said.
"She didn't deserve this. No one does," she said. "She was very loved ... She deserved to have the greatest life and to flourish. She was deserving and she would have made an amazing grandmother."
Source: USA Today, Staff, April 22, 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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