Alabama has scheduled an execution date for Derrick Dearman, who confessed to killing five people with an axe and gun. Dearman, 35, is set to receive a lethal injection on Oct. 17 at a south Alabama prison. The Alabama Supreme Court authorized the death sentence, leading to Gov. Kay Ivey setting the execution date.
Dearman pleaded guilty to murdering five members of his then-girlfriend’s family in a violent rampage in August 2016. In a letter to a judge, he expressed his desire to drop his appeals and proceed with the execution, acknowledging his guilt and accepting his conviction and sentencing.
The sentencing order revealed that Dearman, a drug user, became physically abusive towards his girlfriend, prompting her brother to bring her to a home near Citronelle. On the night of the murders, Dearman attacked the sleeping family members with an axe and guns before fleeing with his girlfriend to Mississippi.
The victims of Dearman’s heinous act included Shannon Melissa Randall, Joseph Adam Turner, Justin Kaleb Reed, Chelsea Marie Reed, and Robert Lee Brown. Dearman surrendered to authorities after his father’s request, admitting to being under the influence of methamphetamine during the crimes.
Initially pleading not guilty, Dearman later changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to death by a jury as required by Alabama law for capital murder cases. He has been on death row since 2018.
By Kim Chandler
