Oklahoma to execute man for 2002 killing of infant daughter

By SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man for killing his 9-month-old daughter in 2002. Fifty-seven-year-old Benjamin Cole is set to receive a lethal injection on Thursday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Cole’s defense attorneys don’t dispute that he killed Brianna Cole by forcibly bending her backward, breaking her spine and puncturing her aorta. But they maintain that Cole is severely mentally ill and has brain damage that has continued to worsen while he has been in prison. A state court determined this month that Cole was competent to be executed. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Cole’s last-minute appeal on Wednesday.