An Oklahoma death row inmate was put to death on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester for the 1993 murder of a three-year-old boy.
Richard Stephen Fairchild, a former marine, received the lethal injection on his 63rd birthday. He was pronounced dead at 10:24 a.m.
His final words were dedicated to his victim, Adam Broomhall, whom he killed after he wet the bed. Broomhall was the son of Fairchild’s girlfriend.
The man burned the child by holding both sides of his body against a furnace before slamming him into a dining table, killing him. Prosecutors deemed Broomhall’s death as torture.
Before his execution, Fairchild called the day “Justice for Adam day” adding that he realized Adam would be 34 if he didn’t murder him.
Defense attorneys for Fairchild asked for clemency arguing that the man himself was abused as a child and was mentally disturbed.
“As Richard’s Fairchild’s brain has deteriorated, he has descended into psychosis, a fact well-documented in his prison records,” they stated.
“Yet despite having lost touch with reality, Richard remains remorseful for his crime and continues to have an unblemished prison record. There is no principled reason for Oklahoma to execute him.”
