Man who killed daughter executed despite being 'unaware' he is being put to death

A man has been executed for brutally killing his daughter despite lawyers arguing he is unaware he was going to be put to death.

Benjamin Cole waited on death row for 20 years after being convicted of murder in 2002.

His lawyers filed a last minute suit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in the hope of the court ordering a competency hearing.

However, the warden of Oklahoma State Penitentiary allegedly refused to initiate the hearing and instead ordered an evaluation by a state doctor in which he was found fully cooperative.

Cole was put to death via lethal injection shortly at 10.22am local time (4.22pm BST) in the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Oklahoma, US, executed for a crime that shocked the nation.

He had been playing video games when he was interrupted by the cries of his nine-month old daughter Brianna Victoria Cole.

In anger he grabbed his daughter's ankles as she lay on her stomach and forced them up to her head, breaking her spine and causing her to bleed to death.

He then returned to his video game.

The case went to trial, and lawyer Emma Rolls said Cole did not plead guilty due to his mental condition.

They argued he was suffering from schizophrenia, caused by an identified brain lesion and other factors, for example the extreme abuse he received as a child.

"He had some fixed delusions on very hyper-religious ideology and he was offered a deal after he gave full confession accepting responsibility for the death of his daughter," Rolls said. "I believe that if he were competent he would have taken that deal to save his life, but he rejected it.

"I think that speaks to how mentally ill he was even before this trial started."

According to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for his last meal Cole had vegetarian lasagna, salad with dressing, tortilla and a fruit drink packet.

He didn’t request anything special so was given the facility religious meal. He ate it at 7.30pm Wednesday and had no food on the day of execution.