Attorneys representing a Mississippi inmate who has been sitting on death row for more than 30 years are looking to get the United States Supreme Court to intervene ahead of an upcoming execution.
Legal counsel for Charles Ray Crawford, who is scheduled to be put to death at the hands of the state on Oct. 15, has petitioned the nation’s high court to intervene ahead of the inmate’s execution. In an emergency application for a stay of execution, Crawford’s attorneys argued that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated and that the Mississippi Supreme Court dismissed this fact when allowing his upcoming death proceedings to advance.
The inmate’s legal team contended that his capital murder trial lawyers erred in court when conceding that Crawford was guilty against his wishes. Crawford was sentenced to death in 1994 for the kidnapping, rape, and killing of Northeast Mississippi Community College student Kristy Ray.
“At petitioner’s capital trial, petitioner’s counsel repeatedly conceded petitioner’s guilt before the jury, going so far as to argue that petitioner was ‘legally responsible’ and ‘still dangerous,'” the attorneys wrote to the Supreme Court. “Petitioner objected both to counsel and to the trial court, to no avail. Petitioner was convicted and sentenced to death.”
Crawford kidnapped Ray, a 20-year-old from Tippah County, four days before he was set to stand trial on separate aggravated assault and rape charges. The pending charges against Crawford, in part, led to him being handed a death sentence when he was tried for Ray’s killing.
However, in a last-ditch effort to keep him from being executed in 13 days, the attorneys are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision to move forward with the execution. Back in September, the state’s high court argued that Crawford had “exhausted all state and federal remedies” to avoid being put to death following a request by Attorney General Lynn Fitch to schedule his execution.
Barring a move by the U.S. Supreme Court, Crawford is slated to be the first inmate executed in the state since Richard Gerald Jordan was lethally injected this past summer.
