The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board decided not to recommend clemency for Benjamin Cole, who was sentenced to death in the 2002 killing of his nine-month-old daughter, on Tuesday.
Warning: Graphic content
The execution of Cole, who is the next Oklahoma death row inmate scheduled to be executed, is set for Oct. 20, reported Koco News 5 ABC. His lawyer argued that he suffered from severe mental illness as well as physical impairments that make him no threat to any person at this point.
On Tuesday, the board voted 4-1 to deny his chance at clemency after which Attorney General John O'Connor released a statement, reported 2 News Oklahoma. He said that he is grateful that the board denied Cole’s request for executive clemency, and their thoughts and "prayers are with the other members of Brianna’s family." He shared that Brianna Victoria Cole was only nine months old when she was "brutally murdered at the hands of her own father Benjamin Cole, Sr., on Dec. 20, 2002, when her cries interrupted Cole’s video game."
He said that Cole was annoyed by the baby's crying and fussing, and so he grabbed her by the "ankles, forcefully pushed her ankles toward her head, bent her back in half, and flipped her over." Then the death row inmate went back to his "video game and left Brianna to die in agony in her crib."
The baby's autopsy revealed that her spine had been "snapped in half and her abdominal aorta had been completely torn through due to non-accidental stretching." Later, an Oklahoma jury decided that death was the only just and appropriate punishment for the murder of the child, said O'Connor.
Cole's lawyers had said that since his trial, he has been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He also has a growing brain lesion. They said that he hardly talks to anyone, believes that rock bands send him messages and doesn't take showers. He also refuses medical treatment for a painful condition, according to The Oklahoman.
Currently being held at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Cole has stayed in his cell, hoarded food and religious materials, said his lawyers. He also kept the lights off at all times. During trial, he stared for hours at a Bible, the board heard. He also wanted to invite the guitarist from the band "Korn" to witness his execution that was originally scheduled in 2015. He predicted that he would disappear once he would be strapped down to the execution table.
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