Alabama death row inmate calls for his own execution: 'It's the right thing'

Derrick Dearman will not appeal his death sentence. He is a convicted murderer sentenced to death in Alabama who sent nine letters to Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, Attorney General Steve Marshall, as well as judges informing them that he will drop his appeals and wants his sentence to be carried out and executed.

"It’s just time to do what I know is right and what I know I gotta do ... But I feel it in my heart that this is the only option that would help the victims’ families get the closure they need to move forward," Dearman said during a telephone interview with CNN from the William C. Holman Correctional Center in Atmore, Ala.

Dearman's comments come two months after the Alabama Supreme Court rejected an appeal and upheld his six murder convictions. He was charged with six murders. He explained that he dropped the appeal at the request of the victims' families.

The events for which he was convicted, began on August 20, 2016, when Dearman, equipped with an ax and other weapons, violently entered a bungalow on the rural outskirts of Citronelle, Ala. Under the influence of methamphetamine, he attacked the victims while they slept.

Shannon Melissa Randall, Robert Lee Brown, Justin Kaleb Reed, Joseph Adam Turner and Chelsea Marie Reed, who was in her fifth month of pregnancy, lost their lives. Dearman fled the scene, taking with him the youngest child of two of the victims. Dearman, a resident of Greene County, subsequently surrendered to local authorities. On Aug. 31, 2018, he admitted his guilt. A jury recommended the death penalty.

Meanwhile, the office of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has received Dearman's letter, CNN was able to confirm.