JUST IN: James Osgood Executed + Last Meal and Words | Death Row (US) 

On April 24th, 2025, James Osgood was executed by lethal injection after spending more than a decade on death row, closing the final chapter on one of the most horrific crimes in Chilton County’s history. In this video, we’ll uncover what happened that day, his last meal, and his last words. But, to understand how James ended up on death row in the first place, we need to go back to October 2010 when everything started.

It was the morning of October 13th, 2010 when Tracy Brown didn’t show up for work. That wasn’t like her, not even close. Her employer called, texted, and waited, but nothing. It was the silence that made him call for a welfare check. And when Tracy’s landlord unlocked the door to her mobile home, he found something no one ever wants to see.

Officer David Moses with the Chilton County Sheriff’s Department was one of the first on scene. He stepped into the bedroom and froze. Tracy’s body was lying on the floor, naked, right next to her bed. Her back was slashed with stab wounds, and her throat had been cut so deeply that he didn’t need a coroner to know this wasn’t an accident.

 This was a killing. Lieutenant Shane Lockhart quickly took over as lead investigator, and it didn’t take long for him to realize this wasn’t something one person could have done alone. The crime scene was too violent, too chaotic. As Shane dug into Tracy’s final hours, a pattern began to form. He learned that the day before she was found, Tracy had spent time with two people, her cousin, Tanya Van Dyke, and her boyfriend, James Osgood.

 Shane brought James in for questioning. At first, the story sounded normal. James said he and Tanya had been running errands with Tracy, cashing a check, paying bills, even looking at a car she was thinking about buying. Several witnesses backed that up and everything seemed fine. But then Shane asked James if there had ever been anything sexual between him and Tracy.

James hesitated, denying it at first, but then he shifted. He admitted that the three of them, James, Tonya, and Tracy, had sex that day. He said it started with oral sex, then escalated. James told the detective that he and Tonya agreed to lie about it afterward because Tonya and Tracy were cousins. Tonya felt ashamed.

But shame wasn’t the only thing James was hiding. There was more, and it was much, much darker. A gun had been found in the trailer, and when asked, James admitted they brought it. He claimed it was for protection. Tracy had been worried about a neighbor who had been bothering her. But Shane noticed something else, too.

A fresh cut on James’s pinky finger. That kind of injury, Shane said, was common in stabbing cases. Once a knife gets slippery with blood, it’s easy to lose grip. James denied everything, but the officer wasn’t buying it. He placed him under arrest and got search warrants for James’s house and vehicle. A month later, James, now locked up in the Chilton County Jail, asked staff about his car and phone.

 When Shane got wind of this, he decided to pay him a visit, this time with Captain Eric Smitherman. But what James didn’t know was that a woman named Tiffany Matthews, who was sharing a cell with Tonya, had given detectives a written statement. In it, Tiffany said Tonya confessed to the killing. She gave graphic details, details only someone involved could know, and Lieutenant Shane brought that statement to the jail.

 He changed the pronouns, made it sound like Tonya herself had written it. Then he read it to James. James listened, then asked him to read it again. After a long pause, James lowered his head, then he looked up. “You might want to get a pen and a piece of paper,” he said. And then came the confession. He said it started with a fantasy, one he shared with Tanya.

 They had both watched crime shows. James remembered a CSI episode about two brothers torturing a victim. That stuck with him. He’d had thoughts like that for as long as he could remember. And eventually, he and Tanya began talking about making it real. They wanted to find someone, maybe a child molester, maybe just someone random at a store.

But instead, they chose someone they already knew, Tracy. James said the plan started when the three returned to Tracy’s home after their errands. It began with Tanya slapping Tracy in the hallway. That was the signal. James grabbed her from behind and put her in a chokehold. Once she was weak, they dragged her to the bedroom.

What happened next is hard to repeat. James forced Tracy to perform oral sex while Tanya pointed a gun at her. Later, he told Tanya to shoot her if she resisted. At one point, Tracy asked to use the bathroom. James followed her in. And when they came back, Tanya ordered her cousin to perform oral sex again, but this time on her.

Then it got worse. James admitted to having sex with Tracy while Tanya watched. Tracy tried to escape, but James caught her by the hair and dragged her back inside. He said that’s when they decided it was time. He pulled out a knife hidden in his sock and slashed her neck, aiming for the jugular. But it didn’t work.

Tracy was still alive and fighting. James got scared and panicked. He stabbed her in the back and then kept cutting her throat. He told detectives he apologized to her as she bled out. She was tortured for almost an hour before she was finally killed. “It’s nothing against you,” he said. “Just stop fighting. Let go.

” When it was over, James took a shower in her bathroom before returning home where he and Tonya got intimate once again. James was charged with two counts of capital murder. One for committing the murder during a rape, the other for killing her during an act of sodomy. The jury didn’t hesitate. On June 13th, 2014, they found him guilty and voted unanimously for the death penalty.

Later, an appeals court ruled there had been a problem with the jury instructions during sentencing and a new hearing was scheduled. But this time, James made a request no one expected. He asked to be sent back to death row. When the judge asked why, James said he believed in an eye for an eye. He said he deserved to die.

In 2018, that request was granted and Tracy’s family supported the decision. After spending more than a decade on death row, James Osgood’s time officially ran out on March 6th, 2025, when the Alabama Supreme Court signed his final death warrant. There were no more appeals, no more delays, his execution date was set in stone.

On Thursday, April 24th, 2025, his final day came. In the days leading up to his execution, James had met with more than 20 people. On Wednesday, he saw a dozen visitors and spoke with seven more by phone. The next day, hours before his death, he met with 11 people, including his daughter, his sister, other family members, friends, and his attorney.

He ate breakfast and snacks, but refused lunch. For his final meal, he requested pizza. At 6:09 p.m., the curtain to the execution viewing room opened. James was already strapped to the gurney. At 6:11, he spoke his final words. For over 10 years, he had avoided saying her name out of guilt, out of shame. He felt he didn’t have the right to, but he now felt disrespectful not to name her.

In his last moments, he said it aloud for the first time in all these years. “I have not said her name since that day because I felt I didn’t have the right to.” James admitted. “Tracy, I apologize.” Then he turned to the people watching, his loved ones, and offered them quiet gestures. At 6:12, he sat upright and made hand signs, 143, code for I love you.

At 6:15, he laid his head down. He took slow, deep breaths as the drugs entered his system, and just moments later, a guard performed the routine consciousness check, calling his name, pinching his arm, flicking his eyelid. James did not respond. By 6:18, his breathing stopped, and at 6:35 p.m.

, James Osgood was pronounced dead. He was 55 years old.