Man convicted of Alabama axe-murders gets his wish after execution date set for October

A convicted axe murderer is scheduled to be the fifth person executed in Alabama this year.

Governor Kay Ivey announced on Monday that Derrick Dearman is set to be executed between midnight on October 17 and 6 a.m. on October 18. He will be put to death by lethal injection, a method he chose over nitrogen hypoxia.

Dearman, 35, made headlines after firing his attorneys earlier this year. He expressed a desire to end all appeals of his conviction and death sentence.

Convicted for the brutal 2016 murders of his then girlfriend’s family in Citronelle, Dearman wrote to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, expressing frustration over delays in his execution, noting that other inmates were being executed before him.

“All this is hard on not only me but my family, and the longer it takes, the more me and my family have to go through,” Dearman wrote, urging officials to proceed with his execution.