A man who raped and killed a 16-year-old girl in Mississippi was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday, becoming the second inmate executed in the state in 10 years.
A Mississippi man has been put to death by lethal injection for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl more than two decades ago. Officials say 58-year-old Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. Wednesday. He is the second inmate executed in Mississippi in 10 years. Loden had been on death row since 2001, when he pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery against Leesa Marie Gray. She was stranded with a flat tire in June 2000 when Loden forced her into his van. Loden was one of five death row inmates suing Mississippi over its lethal injection protocol. A federal judge declined to block the execution, even though the lawsuit was still pending.
Loden and four other death row inmates filed a lawsuit in 2015 challenging the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol as cruel and unusual punishment, which is banned by the Eighth Amendment.
A man who raped & killed a 16-year-old girl in Mississippi was put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday, becoming the second inmate executed in 10 years.