The Misery Machine - The Brianna Cole Story

Starting point is 00:00:00 Let's say you're a parent of a nine-month-old baby girl. You're relaxing on the couch, enjoying your favorite video game, when all of a sudden she starts to cry. Your significant other is busy tending to chores, so you'd pause your game and comfort your crying baby, right? In today's story, a 37-year-old father did pause this game. What happened next was the last thing any loving parent would dream of doing to their daughter. This is the story.

Starting point is 00:00:30 of Brianna Cole. Benjamin Cole didn't grow up in a traditional home. Instead, he grew up in an Oklahoma junkyard, where most days he was surrounded by rampant drug and alcohol use. In fact, Benjamin's mother used drugs and alcohol while pregnant with him. At an early age, Benjamin began drinking to cope with years of verbal and physical mistreatment by those around him. He was even essayed during this time.

Starting point is 00:01:10 Around the age of 10 years old, Benjamin, took to huffing gasoline in order to get high. He managed to stay in high school and get his high school diploma, but by the age of 18, he began to display all of the markers of a person that was beginning to struggle with severe mental illness. Despite not being able to make or keep any friends, Benjamin still managed to get married and had a young son, Benjamin Jr. In 1984, while living in California, his wife accused him of causing harm to their six-month-old

Starting point is 00:01:40 little boy. Now, what kind of harm you might ask? Benjamin Jr. suffered a cigarette burn to the eye, bruises on his arm, head, torso, and groin, as well as a broken ankle. Subsequently, Benjamin was arrested and convicted of aggravated harm to a minor, and he spent two years in prison. Benjamin became isolated and withdrawn. He was often depressed and he did not keep many friends. He struggled with long periods of unemployment. He was discharged from the United States Air Force in 1987, a year after joining, after he displayed impulse control problems and substance use issues. After this, Benjamin's first marriage dissolved. Later, so did his second. But he never gave up on looking for love. In 1998, while he was living in a tent under a bridge in Claremore, Oklahoma, Benjamin met a woman

Starting point is 00:02:33 named Susan Young. And the two would later have a daughter, Brianna Victoria Cole. By the time Brianna was born, Benjamin couldn't hold down a job and was drinking heavily. The two moved into a small home on Cherokee Nation tribal land as Susan was a registered member. It should be noted that their house located at 320 Southmore Avenue was located 400 feet away from the Claremore Indian Hospital. Remember this detail because it will become important. On December 20th, 2002, Benjamin was busy playing Nintendo games. It's been noted by multiple sources is that the game in question was part of the 007 franchise, but it's unclear which installment it was. Now, James Bond-O7 Nightfire was released the same year on GameCube, so it's possible that was the game in question.

Starting point is 00:03:21 Benjamin was fully engrossed in his game when all of a sudden, Brianna, now nine months old, began to cry. Her mother had just put her down for a nap before going outside to hang wet laundry on the clothesline. annoyed and feeling interrupted by Brianna's crying and fussing. Benjamin grabbed his infant daughter by the ankles while she was on her stomach. Now what Benjamin told police was that he was trying to flip Brianna over onto her back and attempt to make her stop crying. What he actually did was forcefully pushed the heels of her feet towards her head, bending her completely in half backwards before he flipped her on her back.

Starting point is 00:04:00 He then went back to his video game and left his daughter to die in agony in her crib. Brianna's spine was broken. Her aorta torn completely in half. She ultimately bled to death. Benjamin kept playing his game like nothing had ever happened. When confronted by his wife Susan, Benjamin denied that there was anything wrong with Brianna. Believing him, Susan gave her daughter some time, but quickly found that Brianna was turning blue. Finally, Benjamin told Susan to contact emergency services and, he attempted CPR. However, he said nothing to the first responders about what it happens. Brianna was eventually taken to a hospital, but unfortunately, she could not be revived.

Starting point is 00:04:49 Some sources claim that Brianna died at the hospital, but according to the medical examiners report, a baby sustaining an injury of this nature would die within minutes. According to police, Benjamin took his wife home afterwards and told her that he wanted to try to have another baby. The next day, Benjamin was confronted by police after being told that a pathologist had deemed Brianna's death a homicide, and he confessed to everything. According to reports after being placed under arrest, Benjamin's response was, how many years am I looking at? Benjamin Cole was charged with Brianna's homicide. He was ultimately found guilty on December 27, 2002. The sentence? Death.

Starting point is 00:05:31 Susan was also held responsible due to her inaction. For failure to seek immediate medical attention for her infant daughter, she was sentenced to 13 years in prison and was released in 2017. The state of Oklahoma has been rather busy carrying out death sentences recently. Historically, Oklahoma has put a total of 198 men and three women to death between 1915 and 22 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. 82 were killed by electrocution, one by hanging, and 118 by lethal injection. The last death by electric chair took place in 1966.

Starting point is 00:06:07 It should be noted that the states of Oklahoma and its neighbor, Texas, account for 10% of the U.S. population and 45% of its executions. Now regarding Benjamin Cole, there is an important factor surrounding his case. And for the sake of complete information, we are going to talk about it. But to do so, we have to give some background information on the death penalty in Oklahoma. Regardless if you are for or against capital punishment, should be noted that executions in Oklahoma have been filled with protocol violations. In October of 2021, in the state's first capital punishment in seven years,

Starting point is 00:06:42 prisoner John Grant convulsed and threw up repeatedly after being administered lethal injection. Capital punishment had been on pause in Oklahoma following the stain of Richard Glossop in 2015 and the botched lethal injections of Charles Warner in 2015 and Clayton Lockett in 2014. Now, Richard Glossop was scheduled to die in September of 2015, but then Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallon issued a last-minute stay of execution after it was discovered that the Department of Corrections received a shipment of potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride. An autopsy report revealed that the state used the wrong drug potassium acetate to execute Charles Warner in January of 2015. Now, according to witnesses, Warner said it feels like

Starting point is 00:07:28 acid and my body is on fire whilst being executed. Clayton Lockett's April 2014 execution was also botched. A report issued after his death found that after trying for 51 minutes to find a vein, a phlebotomist misplaced the IV line that was intended to deliver the lethal drugs into Lockett's bloodstream. Instead, the drugs were delivered to the surrounding subcutaneous tissue. Lockett writhed on the gurney and mumbled before being pronounced dead, 43 minutes after the procedure began.

Starting point is 00:08:02 An investigation team later revealed that the faulty insertion of the intravenous line and lack of training of the execution staff contributed to these problems. But how does this apply to Benjamin Cole? Well, it's a common misconception that in the United States, we don't execute the mentally ill. But, in fact, it happens fairly often. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1986 that the constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment prohibit states from executing death row inmates who have become mentally ill. However, the Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to shield mentally ill people from the death penalty, stating that only people who are considered insane cannot be executed.

Starting point is 00:08:46 However, the insane are narrowly defined as those who are unaware of the punishment that they are about to suffer and why they're about to suffer it, a definition that excludes most people with severe mental illness. In Benjamin's case, his mental health worsened over the years since his trial, years in which teams of post-conviction attorneys struggled to have any meaningful communication with him as a small parade of psychologists and psychiatrists evaluated his declining mental state. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2008, and his mental condition had deteriorated as he went untreated for almost 20 years. Many people do not realize that schizophrenia can be toxic to the brain. And left untreated, a person with schizophrenia can undergo brain damage.

Starting point is 00:09:34 People with schizophrenia also have higher rates of diabetes and liver and heart disease. We have links in our sources if you're interested in the science surrounding this. While locked up, Benjamin became a religious fanatic and doctors stated that he was convinced that any discussion about his case would undermine his faith in Jesus. Jesus Christ and undermined his current saved status. Those beliefs underscored what his lawyers claimed interfered with their ability to work with him on his case. According to his spiritual advisor, Reverend Dr. Jeff Hood, Benjamin claimed that he would be with the Messiah on the date of his execution, or rather that he was the Messiah. Attorneys and doctors would define Benjamin dirty and unkempt in complete darkness inside of his cell, which he reported.

Starting point is 00:10:22 quarterly almost never left unless he was forced to. Now, corrections officers and his case manager told his attorneys that he kept the lights off almost all of the time, and they had no regard for his personal hygiene. In 2015, Benjamin mailed his mother some of his hair and a tooth, and in 2019, he handed one of his attorneys a packet with two more of his teeth and a note that his attorneys understood as a request to mail the teeth to his mother. Additionally, a physician who reviewed an MRI performed on Benjamin this year found a lesion on his brain that would be highly consistent with Parkinson's disease. The growing brain lesion made his attorneys repeatedly describe him as largely catatonic.

Starting point is 00:11:03 At a court hearing on September 30th of this year, he sat slumped forward in a wheelchair for almost four hours. He kept his eyes closed and never spoke. However, Benjamin spoke at length to a state psychologist who examined him this past July at the Oklahoma. Home of Forensic Center in Veneta. According to psychologist Scott Orth, he did not witness any substantial overt signs of mental illness. Benjamin told the psychologist, they want to make sure I'm competent, and that I realized first that I killed my daughter.

Starting point is 00:11:34 And I went through a trial for taking my daughter's life and a jury found me guilty. They found me guilty of homicide, and I was given the death penalty for that, and I accept responsibility for that. He referred to himself as a super-duper hyperbolic Jesus freak and said he hoped that his spirit would return to my father in heaven, in his own words, after he was executed. He also expressed hope that Governor Kevin Stitt after his execution might have a change of heart

Starting point is 00:12:02 about seeking capital punishment and focusing on death for inmates and instead focused more on life and rehabilitation, stating, quote, It's just something I hope he considers and takes to heart. I'll pray for him. and the people of Oklahoma that it happens." End quote. The Oklahoma pardoned parole board voted four to one in September to deny clemency to Benjamin

Starting point is 00:12:24 despite his attorney's pleas for mercy because of his mental issues. The decision meant that Governor Kevin Stitt could not intervene to commute Benjamin's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In Oklahoma, a governor can commute a death row inmate sentence only if the board recommends clemency. Wharton Jim Ferris testified at the hearing on September 30, if the same hearing where Benjamin appeared catatonic, that he relied heavily on the psychologist's report

Starting point is 00:12:51 when he decided that Benjamin was indeed competent. He went on to testify that, quote, I'll do the right thing no matter what. And if I felt he was incompetent, I have no problem with moving that forward. Not a problem at all. But in this case here, I did not see that, end quote. The warden said what really jumped out to him from the report

Starting point is 00:13:11 was Benjamin's statement when asked about visual hallucinations. quote, are you asking if I see little green men running around the floor that beam up in a spaceship to Venus to look for the purple monsters? No, I do not see things. I never have. End quote. Benjamin's attorneys had wanted the Warren to initiate a process that would have resulted in a jury trial over his mental state. They then asked a Pittsburgh County judge, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court, a Tulsa Federal Judge, and a Federal Appeals Court to intervene. All of them refused. The decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver not to get involved came shortly thereafter, as did the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to grant a stay of execution.

Starting point is 00:13:58 Benjamin did not request a traditional last meal. Rather, he was served a facility religious meal of vegetarian lasagna, salad, a tortilla, and a fruit drink packet. He also declined to have a spiritual advisor in the execution chamber and did not want any of his attorneys in the witness room. The curtain went up in the execution chamber at 10.4 a.m. the following morning on October 20th, the 57-year-old inmates' last words were a two-minute-long religious ramble, including a prayer for Jesus to receive my spirit, an appeal such as choose Jesus while

Starting point is 00:14:32 you still can, and keep your eyes peeled, be ready at all times. Benjamin also declared, quote, I forgive everyone that I have done wrong, end quote. The lethal injection itself took 16 minutes to complete. Benjamin opened his eyes, trembled slightly once, and yawned as the first drug, the sedative midazalam, flowed into his veins. At 10.11 a.m., Benjamin was declared unconscious. He could be heard snoring inside the death chamber, and at 1022 a.m., he was pronounced dead. Benjamin's attorney Tom Hurd called him a person with serious mental illness,

Starting point is 00:15:10 whose schizophrenia and brain damage, led to him killing him. his daughter. By the time of his death, he had slipped into a world of delusion and darkness, and according to his attorney, quote, often able to interact with my colleagues and me in any meaningful way, Ben lacked a rational understanding of why Oklahoma took his life today. 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, end quote. When asked what he would do after witnessing Benjamin's execution, Dr. Brian Young, who is Breonna's uncle, said, quote, go back to normal, as normal as it can be. We should not have to wait 20 years for a nine-month-old baby to get her justice. I'm going to talk to my legislators. I want to see if there's something that we can do to make this a faster process, because 20 years give me a break. He admitted to it, and there was no question about this. End quote.

Starting point is 00:16:13 Donna Daniel, Breonna's aunt, thanked the state for carrying out the sentence and giving justice to her late niece, whom she described as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby. Quote, she died a horrific death, and he gets off easy and gets to get a little injection in his arm and goes to sleep in his death. He did not give Brianna the chance to ever grow up to even have her first Christmas to meet her family, end quote. The first time Donna got to see her niece was in a casket. She stated that she wished that the media would focus more on Brianna and less on Benjamin.

Starting point is 00:16:45 This is something that I seriously wish that we could help her with. However, Benjamin took Brianna away at such a young age. We'll never get to know what she liked or didn't or what her hopes and dreams were. She never got to take her first step, say her first words, start kindergarten or make friends of her own. She never got to go to prom, graduate high school, or go to college. Brianna's life was cut short at just nine months old. And as of the date of this recording, Brianna Victoria Cole would be 20 years old.

The Misery Machine - The Brianna Cole Story

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