mississippi death row | My Crime Library

Thomas Loden Execution Scheduled For Tonight

The State of Mississippi is preparing to execute Thomas Loden tonight at 6:00pm local time. In 2001 Thomas Loden would plead guilty to the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of sixteen year old Leesa Marie Gray. According to court reports Leesa Marie Gray was sexually assaulted for hours before she was murdered. Thomas Loden has had his execution delayed for several years due to the method of execution in Mississippi which is lethal injection. However even though Thomas Loden is suing the State over the lethal injection protocol the Supreme Court ruled that the execution can go forward.

Thomas Loden Execution More News

Mississippi is set to execute a man Wednesday by lethal injection — the first since November 2021.

Thomas Loden Jr. is scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. Loden pleaded guilty in 2001 to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery for kidnapping and murdering 16-year-old Leesa Gray.

Gray, a waitress, was stranded with a flat tire on the side of an Itawamba County road in June 2000 when Loden pulled the 16-year-old into his van. Loden spent hours raping and sexually assaulting the teenager before suffocating and strangling her to death. He videotaped most of the crime.

Death penalty opponents held a news conference Tuesday outside the Mississippi Capitol to call on Gov. Tate Reeves to grant mercy for 58-year-old Loden. The group said Loden served honorably as a U.S. Marine for 18 years, including combat in Operation Desert Storm.

“Clearly, something in him snapped for him to commit such a horrific crime,” said Mitzi Magleby, a spokesperson for the Mississippi chapter of Ignite Justice. “Mr. Loden was immediately remorseful. When arrested soon after the crime, he had carved the words ‘I’m sorry’ into his chest. Shouldn’t there be room for grace and mercy in such a situation?”

Sheila O’Flaherty, with Mississippians Educating for Smart Justice, is hoping to change the minds of the people in Jackson who support the death penalty.

“Some people do change their minds when they realize how unfair it is, or when they realize that they may be intentionally executing innocent people. I’m not talking about this particular case, or anything and I’m not diminishing the suffering of victims in any way, but people’s minds can be changed.”

Gray’s mother, Wanda Farris, told the Associated Press that she plans to witness Loden’s execution. Farris said her daughter was a happy girl who loved life.

https://www.wapt.com/article/mississippi-set-to-execute-thomas-loden-convicted-of-raping-murdering-16-year-old-girl/42232531

Thomas Loden Execution December 14 2022

Mississippi authorities released details Wednesday about the last wishes of an inmate who was executed for the 2000 rape and slaying of a 16-year-old girl.

Thomas Loden, 58, was condemned to die by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. He 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.

He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. Loden wore a red prison jumpsuit and was covered by a white sheet during the execution. Brown leather straps held him down on a gurney.

Before the injection started, Loden said he was “deeply remorseful.”

“For the past 20 years, I’ve tried to do a good deed every single day to make up for the life I took from this world,” he said. “If today brings you nothing else, I hope you get peace and closure.”

His last meal included two bone-in fried pork chops, fried okra, a baked sweet potato with butter, Pillsbury Grands biscuits with butter and molasses, peach cobbler with French vanilla ice cream and Lipton sweet tea, the Mississippi Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital.

“He has a full belly because he ate a lot,” MDOC Commissioner Nathan “Burl” Cain, said at a Wednesday news conference. “He liked the okra, he liked the pork chops… I believe he ate every bit of it.”

The meal was served at about 4 p.m., authorities said. Loden requested to see four visitors and a mental health official and was “up and in goods spirits,” Cain said.

“He has expressed some remorse,” Deputy Commissioner of Institutions Jeworski Mallett said. “We spoke with him at 12:45 p.m. and he was remorseful to the family.”

A federal judge last week declined to block Mississippi from carrying out the execution amid a pending lawsuit from Loden and four Mississippi death row inmates over the state’s lethal injection protocol.

During the summer ahead of what should have been Gray’s senior year of high school, she had worked as a waitress at her uncle’s restaurant in northeast Mississippi. On June 22, 2000, she left work after dark and became stranded with a flat tire on a rural road.

Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter with relatives in the area, encountered Gray on the road at about 10:45 p.m. He stopped and began speaking with the teenager about the flat tire. “Don’t worry. I’m a Marine. We do this kind of stuff,” he said.

Loden told investigators he became angry after Gray allegedly said she would never want to be a Marine, and that he ordered her into his van. He spent four hours sexually assaulting her before strangling and suffocating her, according to an interview he gave investigators.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/mississippi-death-row-inmate-dines-pork-chops-biscuits-last-meal-planned-execution

Jimmy Gray Mississippi Execution

Jimmy Gray was executed by the State of Mississippi for the kidnapping and murder of a three year old girl. According to court documents Jimmy Gray who was on parole after serving seven years for murder would kidnap, sexually assault and murder a three year old girl. Jimmy Gray would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jimmy Gray would be executed by the way of the gas chamber on September 2, 1983. The execution was considered to be botched as Jimmy Gray took a long time to die as Gray would bash his head off a steel pole until he lost consciousness.

Jimmy Gray More News

Jimmy Lee Gray died gasping and choking in the cyanide-filled gas chamber at Parchman prison early Friday for the murder of a 3-year-old girl who came to his apartment to play with his kittens.

State Corrections Commissioner Morris Thigpen said doctors reported that Jimmy Gray was dead two minutes after the first smoky wisps of cyanide gas seeped into the gray steel chamber at 12:10 a.m. CDT.

He said the agonized gasps and convulsions that still wracked his body eight minutes later were ‘involuntary type movements that occur in any person who has died. In the doctors’ opinion, it was a prompt and easy death.’

Observers were ordered out of the witness room at 12:18 — eight minutes after executioner T. Berry Bruce released the cyanide pellets — and Jimmy Gray, wracked by convulsions, appeared to still be breathing.

He was not finally pronounced dead until 12:47 a.m., although Thigpen at first announced that doctors — monitoring Gray’s heartbeat via a remote stethoscope — reported the condemned man’s heart stopped at 12:18.

Jimmy Gray, 34, was the eighth man executed in the United States since the Supreme Court lifted the death penalty ban in 1977, and the first to be executed in Mississippi since 1964

He appeared to die as hard as John Louis Evans, whose death required three massive jolts of current in Alabama’s electric chair in April.

Thigpen would not reveal the names of the two doctors who witnessed the execution from a private room, but he said that ‘Within 30 seconds after the fumes began to come up from beneath the chair, Mr. Gray appeared to lose conciousness.

‘At two minutes, the doctors stated there was no heartbeat at all. Over the next five to six minutes, there was irregular breathing and involuntary type movements and reflex actions that commonly occur in any person who has died. In the doctors’ opinion, it was a prompt and easy death,’ Thigpen told reporters.

At 12:01 a.m. CDT, with protestors lighting candles and praying at the prison gates on a hot, muggy night, Warden Eddie Lucas murmured over his hand held radio ‘Let’s go.’

Eight minutes later, Gray was brought into the 4-by-4-foot gray steel gas chamber in the red jump suit of the death row prisoner. He was accompanied by two guards and the huge sheriff of Jackson County, where he was convicted of the murder of 3-year-old Deressa Jean Scales in 1976.

It took two minutes for the guards to strap him into the seat. He kept his head bowed and his eyes closed, whispering occasionally. At 12:10 a.m., the door to the chamber sealed, and Sheriff John Ledbetter signalled Bruce — a school custodian who has been Mississippi’s executioner since the chamber was built in 1955 — to proceed. He threw the lever that dropped a small container of white cyanide crystals into an acid solution under Gray’s seat. A white wisp of gas writhed up between Gray’s legs and he visibly sucked in his breath, breathing deeply. Within a minute his head fell forward and he appeared to be unconscious

But then his head jerked back, he began to choke and strain at the straps holding him to the seat by his arms, legs and chest. His fists :lenched. His face contorted, and prolonged, agonized groans and shuddering gasps could be heard in the witness room.

Three times his head dropped and he appeared dead, but each time it snapped up, striking with an audible clang a steel pole running from floor to ceiling behind his seat. After eight minutes of this, assistant Warden Joe Cook entered the steaming, mosquito-filled witness room and said ‘Gentlemen of the press, let’s go.’ ‘ The chamber was still filled with gas — and mosquitos — and Gray’s head was strained back against the pole, his head turned to the side, his eyes open and rolled back in his head, his mouth open, and his head was moving slightly.

In Dallas, Texas, Richard A. Scales, the father of Gray’s victim, said ‘I’d glad he’s dead. I hate to put it that way. I am glad the he was finally executed, but glad is a bad word. I feel like justice should have been carried out years ago.’

Gray’s seven-year fight for life ended Thursday, when the Supreme Court for the third time turned down his appeals.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1983/09/02/Jimmy-Lee-Gray-died-gasping-and-choking-in-the/9453431323200/

Gary Simmons Mississippi Execution

Gary Simmons was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murder of a man. According to court documents Gary Simmons and the victim Jeffrey Wolfe were involved in an argument when Simmons fatally shot Wolfe then proceeded to carve his body up into pieces. Gary Simmons would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Gary Simmons would be executed by lethal injection on June 20 2012

Gary Simmons More News

The Supreme Court this afternoon denied death row inmate Gary “The Butcher” Simmons’ motion for stay of execution and motion to file a post-conviction petition, the high court announced.

The move follows Attorney General Jim Hood’s office recommendation earlier today that the capital punishment sentence be upheld. Simmons’ attorneys had argued that his previous counsel “barely lifted a finger” to investigate mitigating evidence, which they said included Simmons’ alleged abuse as a child and post-traumatic stress.

They wanted additional time for experts to evaluate Simmons and file reports.

Simmons is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. by lethal injection at the state penitentiary at Parchman for the killing of Texas man Jeffrey Wolfe in 1996. An accomplice and Simmons’ former brother-in-law Timothy Milano shot Wolfe at Simmons’ Moss Point home, and Simmons then carved up the body. The pair dumped the parts into a nearby bayou, and investigators later found about 80 percent of it, including a severed head, there.

Police said Simmons owed Wolfe money for drugs, but Wolfe’s family has disputed that assertion.

Simmons was also convicted of the rape of Wolfe’s female friend, Charlene Leaser, whom he locked in large steel box, letting her out only to be raped.

https://www.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2012/06/gary_simmons_execution_mississ_1.html

Jan Brawner Mississippi Execution

Jan Brawner was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murders of four people. According to court documents Jan Brawner would go to his ex wives home and murdered her, their daughter and her parents. Jan Brawner would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Jan Brawner would be executed by lethal injection on June 12 2012

Jan Brawner More News

Petitions to the United States supreme court for a stay of execution for Jan Michael Brawner were denied late Tuesday afternoon. And Brawner was put to death hours later.

Brawner was pronounced dead at 6:18 Tuesday night. He is convicted of killing his 3-year-old daughter, his ex-wife and her parents in 2001. Brawner later admitted to the crimes and apologized to family members seconds before the injection started Tuesday night.

According to Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps Brawner discussed the murders with him hours before he died Tuesday.

“He talked about killing the mother in law first and then secondly was his former wife and then he took his three-year old and allowed her to watch television,” said Epps. “He thought about what he had done and thought that she could identify him, so he went and killed her and then he waited on the father in law to come home and killed him.”

Brawner shot his ex-wife and her parents each three times. He shot his own daughter 2 times in the face.

Epps said Brawner did show remorse saying “I asked him was he ready to go and he said he was prepared. And he said that he deserved to be executed for what he did.”

David Craft, who found his parents, sister and niece dead in their Tate County home in 2001 was the only family member who witnessed the execution.

Afterwards family members released a statement saying “man has a choice of good and evil. Michael choose evil while my family chose good.”

This is the fifth inmate executed in Mississippi this year.

https://www.wreg.com/news/convicted-killer-pronounced-dead-minutes-after-lethal-injection/

Henry Jackson Mississippi Execution

Henry Jackson was executed by the State of Mississippi for the murders of four children. According to court documents Henry Jackson would go to the home of the children’s grandmother in order to steal a safe. Before he would leave Henry Jackson would stab the four children aged 2 to 5 to death. Henry Jackson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Henry Jackson More News

A Mississippi man convicted of killing his four young nieces and nephews in a 1990 stabbing rampage was executed Tuesday, despite pleas from his two sisters to spare the brother who killed their children.

Henry “Curtis” Jackson Jr. was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. CDT (7:13 p.m. ET) Tuesday after receiving an injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, officials said.

Clad in a red prison jumpsuit as he lay strapped to a gurney, Jackson was asked if he wanted to make a statement.

“No, I don’t,” he responded as family members sat somberly in a nearby witness room.

Jackson’s sister, Glenda Kuyoro, stifled a sob when she walked into the witness room earlier and saw her brother on the gurney. Jackson’s eyes were closed when the witnesses arrived and he never looked in the direction of his family.

Earlier, the 47-year-old inmate had spent the day receiving relatives, including one of the sisters whose two children were slain and who survived the stabbing attack. The slain children ranged from 2 to 5 and were killed as Jackson reportedly was trying to steal his mother’s safe while she was away at church, court records showed.

Jackson was the fourth person executed this year in the state and the 19th person executed in the nation.

He did not request a last meal and ate none of the standard dinner offered to him, corrections officials said. He also declined a sedative ahead of the execution.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant declined to stop the execution though he said he was “deeply touched” by requests for clemency from the sisters and his brother-in-law.

In Mississippi, the governor has the sole authority to grant clemency and can also commute death sentences to life in prison.

“There is no question that Mr. Jackson committed these heinous crimes, and there is no clear and convincing evidence that compels me to grant clemency,” Bryant said.

His statement added: “One of these sisters was a stabbing victim, and both of the sisters are mothers of the murdered children. However, as governor, I have the duty to see that justice is carried out.”

Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps said at a penitentiary briefing earlier Tuesday that the inmate acknowledged the crime and was talkative as he received relatives. Visitors included his sister Regina Jackson, who was stabbed five times and survived the attack that killed her two daughters and two nephews.

Regina Jackson had met with the governor Monday and pleaded for her brother’s life. She also wrote Bryant a letter last month saying she “just can’t take any more killing.”

“As a mother who lost two babies, all I’m asking is that you not make me go through the killing of my brother,” she wrote.

Kuyoro and her husband, Andrew, also had asked Bryant to spare the inmate in a letter dated May 15.

“We are the victims in this case, and we are begging you not to let Curtis be killed. You can keep him in Parchman forever, but please don’t put our family through this horrible execution,” the Kuyoros had written earlier.

After the execution Regina Jackson, who was one of the witnesses, said: “I forgave my brother. I love my brother … God says we got to forgive in order for Him to forgive us.”

The attack took place Nov. 1, 1990, at Jackson’s mother’s home in the Delta region.

The mother was at church that day, and Regina Jackson was there with her two daughters and four nieces and nephews. Her two daughters and two nephews were stabbed to death, records showed. Another niece was so severely injured that she was a paraplegic until her recent death.

Jackson has said he doesn’t remember stabbing the children, but there was testimony at his September 1991 trial that he cut the phone line before going in the house, then demanded money and began the attack, according to the court record.

Regina Jackson testified at trial that she lapsed in and out of consciousness after being tied up and stabbed in the neck, but she could hear her brother dragging a safe down a hall. The noise awoke 5-year-old Dominique, one of her daughters.

“Regina testified that Jackson called Dominique to him, told her that he loved her, stabbed her, and tossed her body to the floor,” according to the court record. “Jackson returned to Regina, stabbing her in the neck and twisting the knife, at which point she pretended to be dead until she heard him leave.”

Henry Jackson subsequently surrendered to police. He was convicted of four counts of capital murder at trial and sentenced to death.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/mississippi-executes-killer-who-fatally-stabbed-4-his-nieces-nephews-flna815885