Alabama death row inmate Derrick Dearman, 36, begs to be EXECUTED as he gives up appeal so families of five people he massacred in 2016 can have ‘justice’

A 36-year-old Alabama death row inmate has pleaded to be executed as he withdraws his appeals to allow the families of the five people he massacred in 2016 to get “justice.” Derrick Dearman, who was convicted of six counts of capital murder because one of the victims was pregnant when she was killed, said he is willing to forego sentencing appeals. “Now is the time for the victims and their families to get the justice they deserve to begin closure,” he said during a phone interview with NBC News. Speaking from the William C. Holman Correctional Center in Atmore, Alabama, the inmate said he will write a letter to inform the families of the five victims of the decision. This announcement comes two months after the Alabama Supreme Court denied his sentencing appeal request, upholding all six murder convictions. Derrick Dearman, a 36-year-old Alabama death row inmate, has pleaded to be executed as he withdraws his appeals to allow the families of the five people he massacred in 2016 to get “justice” Derrick Dearman, who was convicted of six counts of capital murder because one of the victims was pregnant when she was killed, he said he is willing to give up sentencing appeals. Pictured: The home in rural Alabama where the bodies of five victims were found. “I’ve spent many nights thinking: What would he say to any of them if he ever had the chance, the chance to say something?” he said. ‘That’s part of the reason I made the decision to carry out my sentence. Words have no weight in this situation. ‘The only thing I would say is that everyone who was hurt by the actions forgive me, not for me, but for them. That way, they will free their heart to truly heal.” In October 2018, Dearman was found guilty of murder by a jury that later unanimously recommended the death penalty. Dearman’s attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative filed the appeal, but Dearman said it’s for the good of his family. “They said, ‘Derrick is only giving us a few years in this appeal process.’ We deserve it, it’s our right as a family to fight for your life,’ and I said, ‘Okay.’ That was almost six years ago, and I feel like I’ve given them a fair chance. “I’m guilty plain and simple, I turned myself in and pleaded guilty,” said Dearman, who opted for lethal injection. ‘Once I moved to the county and spent a week there, sleeping every day , my mind kept coming back to me a little more, a little more, a little more, I was in shock. “I couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of what had happened because those people were good people,” he added. In October 2018, Dearman was found guilty of murder by a jury that later unanimously recommended the death penalty. Pictured: Dearman in 2016 The victims were Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; José Adam Turner, 26; and Robert Lee Brown, 26, and Chelsea Marie Reed, 22, who was five months pregnant. After the massacre, Dearman forced his estranged girlfriend and a three-month-old baby, the son of one of the murder victims, to board to a vehicle. The three headed to Dearman’s father’s house in Mississippi. In the photo: Lanera Lester, Dearman’s then-girlfriend. “Drugs made me a very unpredictable, unstable and violent person,” she said. ‘That’s not who I am. The person who committed these crimes and the person I really am are two different people.’ Dearman, who battled drug addiction since he was a teenager, was high on methamphetamine when he brutally killed five members of his then-girlfriend Lanera Lester’s family. After the massacre, Dearman forced his estranged girlfriend and a 3-month-old baby, the son of one of the murder victims, into a vehicle. The three drove to Dearman’s father’s house in Mississippi. After arriving at Dearman’s father’s house, he freed Lester and the baby and then turned himself in to the Mississippi Sheriff’s Department. The victims were Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Justin Kaleb Reed, 23; José Adam Turner, 26 years old; and Robert Lee Brown, 26, and Chelsea Marie Reed, 22, five months pregnant. The crime was of a magnitude rarely seen in a rural corner of south Alabama, Mobile County Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Burch said. The crime was of a magnitude rarely seen in a rural corner of south Alabama, Mobile County Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Burch said. Pictured: Dearman in court in 2016 The gruesome scene occurred in Citronelle, which is located in the southeastern part of Alabama, about 245 miles from Birmingham. “It has touched a lot of people in the community,” said James Landers, a Citronelle Councilman. “It’s such a terrible, terrible tragedy.” Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich told reporters that in her 20-year career as a prosecutor, she had never come across a crime “where five people were brutally and cruelly murdered, and that’s what we have here.’ Dearman was detained after walking into the sheriff’s office in Greene County, Mississippi, about 20 miles west of Citronelle, Burch said. He was accompanied by his father when he showed up at the sheriff’s department and turned himself in, the sheriff’s office said. Alabama sheriff’s office in a statement. He initially pleaded not guilty to six counts of capital murder and two counts of kidnapping. “They knew I was not in my right mind, they knew if I was sober I would never have done those horrible things,” he said. “I wasn’t even going to litigate my conviction. But I allowed my family to go up there and plead with the courts not to seek the death penalty.” Then, in September 2018, he fired his court-appointed attorneys and pleaded guilty. He has since been sentenced to death, but an execution date has not yet been set. As Dearman confessed his willingness to be executed this week, a man convicted of shooting and killing two people in Oklahoma City more than two decades ago He was executed on Thursday morning. Michael Dewayne Smith, pictured in February 2021, died by lethal injection Thursday morning. He was convicted of separate fatal shootings that occurred while he was high on drugs Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary Thursday morning and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m. The death gurney in the Penitentiary’s execution chamber Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester Michael Dewayne Smith received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:20 a.m., the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said. The state’s first execution in 2024 comes after a judge rejected requests to delay the schedule of lethal injections. brushing aside concerns about trauma and staff shortages and saying correctional teams needed to “man up”. Smith, 41, appeared to shake briefly and tried to lift his head off the stretcher before relaxing after being administered the first of a deadly three-drug cocktail. During a clemency hearing last month, Smith expressed his “deepest sorrow” to the victims’ families, but denied responsibility because he was “high.” The board denied him clemency in a 4-1 vote. The US Supreme Court On Thursday morning, the court denied a stay of execution sought by Smith’s lawyers, who argued that his confession to police was not sufficiently corroborated. Prosecutors say Smith was a ruthless gang member who killed both victims in misguided acts of revenge and confessed to his involvement in the murders. to the police and two other people. The execution came as Oklahoma attempts to clear a backlog of executions, using an aggressive schedule of executing 25 prisoners in less than three years. That would eliminate 58 percent of those on death row in Oklahoma.