Mississippi to execute Thomas Edwin Loden Jr, 58, for 2000 murder and rape of 16-year-old Leesa Marie Gray
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI: Thomas Edwin Loden Jr, a Mississippi man, will be executed on Wednesday evening, December 14, for raping and killing a teenager. The incident took place on June 22, 2000, when Leesa Marie Gray’s car had a flat tire on a rural road as she left work after dark. He will now become the second inmate to be executed in Mississippi in 10 years.
He will receive a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, after being on death row since 2001. The man pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape, and four counts of sexual battery. A federal judge declined to further block the state from carrying out the execution, in a late-night ruling on December 7. There’s also been a pending lawsuit from Loden and four Mississippi death row inmates over the state’s lethal injection protocol. “It is not Mr. Loden’s intent at this time to make any legal challenges,” one of Loden’s attorneys told The Associated Press.
