The nation's final execution of 2024 carried out in USA

Oklahoma on Thursday morning carried out the nation's final execution of 2024, putting to death a former grocery store stocker convicted of murdering a 10-year-old girl in 2006.
The execution of Kevin Ray Underwood by lethal injection, which was conducted on his 45th birthday, came after the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board unanimously rejected his request for clemency last week in the death of his young neighbor, Jamie Rose Bolin. The decision, although expected, was notable: This year is the first since 2016 without any state granting clemency to an individual sentenced to death, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.