Benjamin Cole (57) was sentenced to death in 2004

DLNews Crime:

Twenty years after he killed his daughter, a killer has been executed in the U.S.

The death sentence against Benjamin Cole (57) was carried out on Thursday in the prison of the city of McAlester (U.S. state of Oklahoma) with a lethal injection, as the authorities announced.

The U.S. Supreme Court had refused on Wednesday to stop his execution.

Cole had been sentenced to death in 2004. He had killed his crying nine-month-old daughter because he wanted to continue playing a James Bond game on his Nintendo console undisturbed.

“BREAKING: The state of Oklahoma has executed Benjamin Cole for the 2002 murder of his daughter, Brianna. Cole killed the 9-month-old for crying while he was playing a video game. pic.twitter.com/0hpYaPyHMJ

- Jonathan Cooper (@JCooperTV) October 20, 2022."

His lawyers argued Cole had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was suffering from brain damage. He said his condition had recently deteriorated, and he could not walk, take care of his hygiene or communicate properly.

Background: In the U.S., severely mentally ill people who cannot comprehend the reasons for punishment and its effects are generally not allowed to be executed.

Oklahoma authorities did not believe the lawyers' accounts and did not see any mental problems.

According to local journalists, the killer talked and prayed in a difficult-to-understand tone for about two minutes Thursday while being restrained for administering the lethal injection.

The report said, among other things, "Jesus is my God and Savior" and "Choose Jesus while you still can."

Cole had not ordered a last meal; he was served a vegetarian lasagna.

Twelve inmates have already been executed in the U.S. this year, four in Oklahoma alone. The state is planning several more executions in the coming months.