A convicted killer on death row in Alabama told NBC News he no longer wants to delay justice for the families of the five people he murdered eight years ago and is ready to pay the ultimate price for his crimes.
In his first-ever interview with a reporter, Derrick Dearman said he mailed nine letters earlier this week to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall, as well as the judges and others involved in the horrific case, informing them he is dropping his appeals and wants to be executed.
Dearman, 36, said he is at peace with his decision.
“Now it’s time for the victims and their families to get the justice they rightly deserve to start the closure,” he said during a telephone interview from William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.
Dearman said he has not yet told the victims’ kin of his decision, but he intends to write them letters as well.
“I have laid many nights thinking, what would I say to any of them if I ever had the chance, the opportunity to say something?” he said. “That’s part of the reason I’ve made my decision to have my sentence carried out. Words don’t have any weight in this situation. The only thing I would say is that everyone that was hurt by the actions to forgive me, not for myself, but for them. That way, they will free their heart up to be able to truly heal.”
Dearman made his announcement two months after the Alabama Supreme Court denied an application to appeal his sentence and upheld his six murder convictions. He was charged with six homicides because one of the victims, 22-year-old Chelsea Marie Reed, was five months pregnant.
Alabama has a fetal homicide law that applies to any stage of pregnancy.
Dearman, who is from Leakesville, Mississippi, said he went through the appeals process for the sake of his family — not for himself.
“They said, ‘Derrick just give us a few years in this appeal process,’” he said. “‘We deserve that, it’s our right as your family to fight for…
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