A Chickasha man convicted of murdering his 13-month-old daughter more than nine years ago is scheduled to be executed Thursday night at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

James Patrick Malicoat, 31, would be the fourth inmate to be put to death this year in Oklahoma, the 83rd since the Supreme Court allowed the reinstatement of capital punishment three decades ago and the 166th overall since 1915.

His execution will be the second in three days at the prison. Eric Allen Patton - convicted of the December 1994 murder of Charlene Elizabeth Kauer in Oklahoma City - was executed Tuesday.

Malicoat's execution had been scheduled for Aug. 22, but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals delayed it to allow Malicoat to testify in the competency hearing for another death-row inmate, Garry Thomas Allen.

During a clemency hearing earlier this month, Malicoat expressed remorse for the death of Tessa Leadford, who died on Feb. 21, 1997, at Malicoat's home, but said he wasn't going to plead for his life because “I don't know if it would do any good.”

In one of Malicoat's earlier appeals, he had claimed that Oklahoma's use of lethal injection as an execution method constituted cruel and unusual punishment. In an unanimous decision issued June 19, the state Court of Criminal Appeals disagreed, saying the method was constitutional and that the lethal injection process “comports with contemporary standards of decency.”

During Patton's execution, state corrections officials used a slightly different lethal drug recipe for the first time. The new system - in part a response to a challenge filed by Patton - was to deliver a larger dose of anesthesia before the fatal drugs were administered.

Under the new system, inmates will receive a larger dose of the sedative sodium thiopental, which causes unconsciousness, before getting injected with vecuronium bromide, which stops breathing, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

When she died, Tessa had been in her father's care for 19 days. During that time she suffered abdominal bleeding, broken ribs, bite marks and extensive bruising.

“It's unimaginable what that girl was going thru the last days of her life,” said Grady County District Attorney Bret Burns, who helped prosecute Malicoat. “If we're going to have the death penalty in our society, he's the type of criminal who should get it.”

Burns said he planned to attend Malicoat's execution.

Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Dickson said the little girl had 35 to 40 bruises on her chest and abdomen that caused significant internal bleeding. Another bruise on the child's forehead was four inches long and bleeding extended to the surface of her skull.

“Nobody should ever have to be involved in a case like this,” Malicoat said during the clemency hearing. “I took her life long before it was due for it to end.

“I have no idea why I did it. I have no idea why it happened. I've tried to find an answer for it for 9 1/2 years,” he said.

The five-member state Pardon and Parole Board unanimously denied clemency to Malicoat, even after Tessa's mother, Mary Ann Leadford, and other family members pleaded with the board to spare Malicoat's life.