Oklahoma has executed by lethal injection Benjamin Cole, who was sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of his 9-month-old daughter Brianna Victoria Cole, over the objections of defense attorneys who argued the 57-year-old suffered from schizophrenia and was severely mentally ill.He did not give Brianna the chance to ever grow up, to even have her first Christmas, to meet her family.” Asked what relatives who witnessed the execution would do now, Bryan Young, Brianna’s uncle, said, “Go back to normal.” “As normal as it can be,” added Daniel, who also told reporters, “We should not have to wait 20 years for a 9-month-old baby to get her justice.” Cole’s attorney called him a “person with serious mental illness whose schizophrenia and brain damage” led to him murdering his daughter, according to a statement.“As Oklahoma proceeds with its relentless march to execute one mentally ill, traumatized man after another, we should pause to ask whether this is really who we are, and who we want to be.” Cole is the second death row inmate put to death in the series of more than two dozen executions the state of Oklahoma intends to carry out through 2024 – a spree critics have condemned amid the state’s history of botched lethal injections.They pointed to “evolving standards of decency,” including public polling that shows disapproval for executions of the mentally ill. Oklahoma had “the opportunity to exhibit courage, to follow these standards, and to be on the right side of history by prohibiting the execution of Benjamin Cole, a severely mentally ill and physically infirm person.” The US Supreme Court in a 1986 ruling found the execution of the severely mentally ill to be unconstitutional, with Justice Thurgood Marshall writing, “It is no less abhorrent today than it has been for centuries to exact in penance the life of one whose mental illness prevents him from comprehending the reasons for the penalty or its implications.” And in Oklahoma, state law makes it illegal to execute someone found to be insane.He simply does not have a rational understanding of why Oklahoma seeks to execute him.” Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor praised the parole board’s September vote to deny clemency in a statement, noting Cole’s conviction and sentence had been upheld on appeal and rejecting questions about his mental illness."