Benjamin Cole was executed almost 20 years after killing his 9-month-old daughter (Pictures: AP)
Oklahoma executed a man convicted of killing his infant daughter, despite pleas for clemency from his attorneys due to his multiple illnesses.
Benjamin Cole was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 10.22am on Thursday.
The Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal from Cole’s lawyers on Wednesday, paving the way for Oklahoma to execute their fourth death row prisoner in 2022.
For his last words, Cole said 2-minute long prayer. ‘Choose Jesus while you still can,’ the convicted murderer concluded.
People protest against the death penalty and the execution of Benjamin Cole outside of the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion (Picture: AP)
He was delivered the first dose of three drugs at 10.06am. He was unconscious by 10.12am.
Witnesses said he could be heard snoring in the execution chamber before the final dose was administered.
Cole was convicted in 2002 of killing his 9-month-old daughter, Brianna Cole, in a gruesome manner.
According to prosecutors, Cole became angry at his daughter when her crying interrupted him playing video games. Cole killed her by bending her body backwards, breaking her spine and severing her aorta.
A protester holds a sign for traffic to see at a protest against the death penalty and the execution of Benjamin Cole outside of the Oklahoma Governor’s Mansion (Picture: AP)
Cole confessed to the killing in a taped interview with police shortly after the murder in 2002.
Investigators also found evidence that Brianna was abused before her death. Cole had previously spent time in a California prison after being convicted of abusing another child.
But according to his attorney Tom Hird, Cole’s severe illnesses had left him with ‘no rational understanding of why the State seeks to execute him.’
Cole’s public defenders did not dispute his guilt, instead they argued that he should not be executed because of severe mental and physical illnesses.
Cole was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Later, doctors also discovered a large lesion on his brain, which effected his problem solving, movement, and social abilities. It is sometimes associated with Parkinson’s disease.
As the lesion grew larger, Cole began to act more and more erratically in jail. He refused to speak with other prisoners or prison staff, refused medical treatment, and stopped cleaning himself or his living quarters.
By the time he was executed, his hair and beard were long and unkempt.
‘As Ben’s physical health deteriorated along with his mind, he became progressively more detached from reality, refusing to leave his cell, moving little and with difficulty, and rarely speaking to anyone,’ Hird said.
Despite this, the Oklahoma Parole and Pardon Board denied Cole clemency in 4-1 vote. Earlier in October, a district court judge found him mentally competent.
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Benjamin Cole was convicted of killing his 9-month-old daughter in 2002.