Charles Ray Crawford, 59, was executed and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. CDT on Wednesday in Parchman at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the state’s Department of Corrections said. Photo by MDOC
Mississippi on Wednesday executed its second death row inmate of the year, putting a 59-year-old man to death by lethal injection after the state’s governor said he had no intention to intervene.
Charles Ray Crawford was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. CDT in Parchman at the Mississippi State Penitentiary, Mississippi Department of Corrections said.
Crawford was on death row for 31 years. Richard Jordan, 79, who was initially sentenced to death 49 years ago, was executed on June 25 in Mississippi, the state’s first executed inmate of 2025.
For Crawford, all legal motions had failed, including an emergency filing with the state Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.
His last meal was a double cheeseburger, french fries, peach cobbler and chocolate ice cream, Marc McClure, regional superintendent for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, told The Clarion Ledger.
The curtain was lifted at 6 p.m. with Crawford strapped to a gurney as a white sheet covered most of his body and a red shirt was slightly visible. He was surrounded by five officials.
“To my family, I love you. I’m at peace. I’ve got God’s peace,” Crawford said. “To the victim’s family, true closure and true peace, you cannot reach that without God.
“Thank you, God for giving me the peace that I have,” Crawford said and then closed his eyes.
At 6:02 p.m., the first of three drugs was administered.
At 6:15 p.m., he was pronounced dead and the curtain closed.
Nine protesters were outside the prison.
He was convicted and later given the death penalty in 1994 for the 1993 kidnapping and fatal stabbing of 20-year-old-Kristy Ray.
Crawford took Ray from her Tippah County home to a cabin in a wooded area, where he reportedly handcuffed her, then raped her before stabbing the woman in the chest.
He was out on bond and out from trial for rape in another local case. Four days before that trial, Crawford abducted Ray from her parents’ home, about 255 miles north of Jackson.
His crime was featured in March 2019 on Investigation Discovery’s Your Worst Nightmare, titled Behind the Barn.
On Monday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said he reviewed the case but denied Crawford’s clemency appeal.
“At this time, all necessary procedures are being followed with the anticipation that, absent a last-minute stay from the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Crawford’s execution will proceed as scheduled,” according to the two-term Republican governor.
There have been 38 executions in the U.S., according to the Death Penalty Information Center. The most have been in Florida with 14, a state record.
On Tuesday, Florida executed Samuel Smithers for the 1996 murders of two women. That same day in Missouri, Lance Shockley was executed for the 2005 murder of a state highway patrol officer.
In 2024, 25 were put to death nationwide.
