"A Life for a Life": Alabama Gets Ready to Put a Man to Death Who Requested to Die

April 25, 2025, Atlanta, AL — Tonight at 6pm, James Osgood will be put to death by lethal injection in the William C. However, in contrast to most executions, this one is carried out at the man's own desire rather than following a protracted legal struggle of appeals or last-minute clemency requests.

Osgood, 55, has been on Alabama's Death Row for over ten years because of the rape and killing of Tracy Lynn Brown, a horrific crime that continues to plague Chilton County. But now that all legal options have been exhausted, he has decided to die according to the state's wishes after declining the option of dying by nitrogen gas, a method Alabama allowed in 2018. No appeals. No objections. No requests for clemency.

He made no request.

A Reexamination and Reaffirmation of a Sentence

Contradictions abound in Osgood's story: A man who was found guilty of unspeakable acts of brutality and now claims that his death is justice rather than punishment.

In 2018, Osgood appeared before a judge once more for a resentencing after his initial death sentence from 2014 was reversed because of a procedural error. However, he requested the court to return it rather than fight for his life.

Judge Sibley Reynolds heard Osgood say, "I have always believed in an eye for an eye." "I made a mistake.He knew exactly what he wanted to do. A jury might save him life in jail, he claimed, so he did not want them to reevaluate his fate. Instead, he asked for the same punishment—death—and once again put his life in the judge's hands.

A Crime That Is Hard to Understand

Even after more than ten years, the facts of Brown's murder are still inhumane to read. Tracy Lynn Brown, who had hitched a ride with a cousin and Osgood to pick up her paycheck on October 13, 2010, never arrived home.

Things were really aggressive when the party got back to Brown's trailer. Court documents state that Osgood pulled Brown into the bedroom, sexually assaulted her, and made his girlfriend, Tonya Vandyke, detain her at gunpoint. Osgood interrupted Brown's attempt to flee. After carrying on the attack, he stabbed her in the back and cut her throat from behind. Later on, her landlord found her body.

Soon after, Osgood was taken into custody and admitted to the crime. The court and jury categorically rejected his defense's attempt to recast the assault as a consensual meeting that went awry.

Anguish That Is Permanent

Brown's sister made an unvarnished and heartfelt remark during the 2018 resentencing. For her, this was about justice for Tracy, not about legal formalities or closure.

"Returning here has been detrimental to our continued struggle for Tracy," she stated. This has nothing to do with his accountability. He wants to get away with his penalty. He is a monster. No pity. This seems like a simple punishment to me.

The Brown family's never-healed wounds were reopened by the case's reopening. As vivid and ruthless as the day it occurred, the cruelty of Tracy's death, the personal betrayal, and the terror all came back.

The Person Who Made the Sentence

Osgood's past, as presented in court years ago, presents a troubling image. His upbringing was characterized by severe neglect, sexual abuse, and instability. He fathered a child at the age of 14 with a woman ten years his senior. According to a medical expert's testimony, early starvation may have impacted his brain development.

Nevertheless, the jury and the court found little opportunity for leniency in light of his misdeeds.

Osgood made it plain that he did not want any petitions or protests in his name, according to Esther Brown, executive director of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty.

"He made the decision," she stated. He is not looking for justifications. He feels that he is deserving of this.

The Last Hours

Osgood is still in a cell a few feet from the execution chamber as the clock approaches six of the clock in the evening. Like the act itself, the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol, which he will die by, sparks intense ethical discussion in Alabama and elsewhere.

His passing will not make the grief go away. Tracy will not return as a result. It won’t answer the fundamental questions about violence, justice, or whether the death penalty brings closure or worsens suffering.

For James Osgood, however, it will put a stop to the tale he maintains he wrote.

He declared, "I deserve what I was given."And the state of Alabama will comply tonight.