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Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, is in search of an execution date for a convicted killer who has been on loss of life row for 30 years, however his lawyer argues that the request is untimely because the man plans to attraction to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Charles Ray Crawford, 58, was sentenced to loss of life in reference to the 1993 kidnapping and killing of 20-year-old neighborhood faculty pupil Kristy Ray, in line with The Associated Press.
During his 1994 trial, jurors pointed to a previous rape conviction as an aggravating circumstance once they issued Crawford’s sentence, however his attorneys stated Monday that they’re interesting that conviction to the Supreme Court after a decrease court docket dominated in opposition to them final week.
Crawford was arrested the day after Ray was kidnapped from her dad and mom’ dwelling and stabbed to loss of life in Tippah County. Crawford informed officers he had blacked out and didn’t keep in mind killing her.
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He was arrested simply days earlier than his scheduled trial on a cost of assaulting one other girl by hitting her over the pinnacle 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 woman who was pals with the sufferer of the hammer assault. The victims had been on the similar 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.
During the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital homicide trial in Ray’s loss of life, jurors discovered the rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the loss of life sentence, in line with court docket information.
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During the sentencing portion of Crawford’s capital homicide trial, jurors discovered his prior rape conviction to be an “aggravating circumstance” and gave him the loss of life sentence. (iStock)
In his newest federal attraction of the rape case, Crawford claimed his earlier attorneys offered unconstitutionally ineffective help for an madness protection. He obtained a psychological analysis on the state hospital, however the trial judge repeatedly refused to permit a psychiatrist or different psychological well being skilled outdoors the state’s professional to assist in Crawford’s protection, court docket information present.
On Friday, a majority of the fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Crawford’s attraction.
But the dissenting judges wrote that he obtained 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 purpose 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 is 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.”
Photo reveals the gurney of an execution chamber. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
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Crawford’s case has already been appealed a number of occasions utilizing numerous arguments, which is frequent in loss of life penalty circumstances.
Hours after the federal appeals court docket denied Crawford’s newest attraction, Fitch filed paperwork urging the state Supreme Court to set a date for Crawford’s execution by deadly injection, claiming that “he has exhausted all state and federal cures.”
However, the attorneys representing Crawford within the Mississippi Office of Post-Conviction Counsel filed paperwork on Monday stating that they plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court docket’s ruling.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
