Mississippi Legal professional Common Lynn Fitch, a Republican, is searching for an execution date for a convicted killer who has been on demise row for 30 years, however his lawyer argues that the request is untimely for the reason that man plans to enchantment to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
Charles Ray Crawford, 58, was sentenced to demise in reference to the 1993 kidnapping and killing of 20-year-old group school scholar Kristy Ray, in response to The Related Press.
Throughout his 1994 trial, jurors pointed to a previous rape conviction as an aggravating circumstance after they issued Crawford’s sentence, however his attorneys stated Monday that they’re interesting that conviction to the Supreme Courtroom after a decrease court docket dominated in opposition to them final week.
Crawford was arrested the day after Ray was kidnapped from her mother and father’ house and stabbed to demise in Tippah County. Crawford advised officers he had blacked out and didn’t keep in mind killing her.
TEXAS LAWMAKER PROPOSES BILL TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY IN LONE STAR STATE: ‘I THINK SENTIMENT IS CHANGING’
Mississippi demise row inmate Charles Ray Crawford, who was convicted and sentenced to demise in 1994 within the 1993 kidnapping and killing of a group school scholar, 20-year-old Kristy Ray. (Mississippi Division of Corrections by way of AP)
He was arrested simply days earlier than his scheduled trial on a cost of assaulting one other girl by hitting her over the top with a hammer.
The trial for the assault cost was delayed a number of months earlier than he was convicted. In a separate trial, Crawford was discovered responsible within the rape of a 17-year-old lady who was buddies with the sufferer of the hammer assault. The victims had been on the identical place through the assaults.
Crawford stated he additionally blacked out throughout these incidents and didn’t keep in mind committing the hammer assault or the rape.
In the course of the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital homicide trial in Ray’s demise, jurors discovered the rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the demise sentence, in response to court docket data.
PRO-TRUMP PRISON WARDEN ASKS BIDEN TO COMMUTE ALL DEATH SENTENCES BEFORE LEAVING
In the course of the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital homicide trial, jurors discovered his prior rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the demise sentence. (iStock)
In his newest federal enchantment of the rape case, Crawford claimed his earlier attorneys supplied unconstitutionally ineffective help for an madness protection. He acquired a psychological analysis on the state hospital, however the trial choose repeatedly refused to permit a psychiatrist or different psychological well being skilled outdoors the state’s skilled to assist in Crawford’s protection, court docket data present.
On Friday, a majority of the fifth U.S. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals rejected Crawford’s enchantment.
However the dissenting judges wrote that he acquired an “inadequately ready and offered madness protection” and that “it took years for a professional doctor to conduct a full analysis of Crawford.” The dissenting judges quoted Dr. Siddhartha Nadkarni, a neurologist who examined Crawford.
“Charles was laboring below such a defect of cause from his seizure dysfunction that he didn’t perceive the character and high quality of his acts on the time of the crime,” Nadkarni wrote. “He’s a severely brain-injured man (corroborated each by historical past and his neurological examination) who was primarily not current in any helpful sense resulting from epileptic suits on the time of the crime.”
Photograph reveals the gurney of an execution chamber. (AP Photograph/Sue Ogrocki, File)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Crawford’s case has already been appealed a number of instances utilizing varied arguments, which is frequent in demise penalty instances.
Hours after the federal appeals court docket denied Crawford’s newest enchantment, Fitch filed paperwork urging the state Supreme Courtroom to set a date for Crawford’s execution by deadly injection, claiming that “he has exhausted all state and federal treatments.”
Nevertheless, the attorneys representing Crawford within the Mississippi Workplace of Publish-Conviction Counsel filed paperwork on Monday stating that they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to overturn the appeals court docket’s ruling.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
