The Mississippi Supreme Court has set the execution date of a man sitting on death row for more than 30 years.
Charles Ray Crawford was sentenced to death in 1994 for the kidnapping, rape, and killing of Northeast Mississippi Community College student Kristy Ray, which had occurred one year prior to his conviction. After multiple failed attempts at appealing his sentence, the state’s high court finally determined when the inmate would be put to death. Crawford, 59, will be executed on Oct. 15.
“After due consideration, the Court finds Crawford. has exhausted all state and federal remedies for purposes of setting an execution date under Mississippi Code Section 99-19-106 (Rev. 2020),” the state’s high court stated. “The Court therefore finds that the State’s Renewed Motion to Set Execution Date should be granted and that a date should be set for execution of the death sentence imposed upon Crawford.”
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.
The Mississippi Supreme Court’s setting of an execution date for Crawford comes roughly three months after Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch urged officials to put the inmate to death. Crawford is slated to be the first inmate executed in the state since Richard Gerald Jordan was lethally injected this past summer.
