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Thread: Thomas Edwin Loden, Jr. - Mississippi Execution - December 14, 2022

  1. #21
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    June 16, 2017

    Mississippi to Seek Execution Dates for 2 Inmates

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Attorney General Jim Hood said Thursday that he will ask the Mississippi Supreme Court to approve execution dates for two inmates, even though court challenges are still pending to the state's lethal injection methods.

    Hood spokeswoman Margaret Ann Morgan said the state would seek dates for Richard Jordan and Thomas Loden if state prison officials confirm they have needed drugs. Jordan has served 41-years on death row for kidnapping and killing Edwina Marta in Harrison County in 1976. Loden pleaded guilty in 2001 to kidnapping, raping and murdering Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County.

    Hood, a Democrat, can't go ahead though until the Supreme Court finalizes rulings in both cases. A lawyer for Loden is already seeking a rehearing, and Jordan's lawyer said he will do the same. That could cause a months-long delay, and it's not clear if justices will be willing to allow executions to proceed with other challenges going on.

    In a 6-3 decision, justices rejected a challenge by Jordan to use a particular injection drug because lawmakers changed state law. Justices also rejected Jordan's claim that his 41 years on death row make his execution unconstitutional.

    Before this year, state law specified that a fast-acting barbiturate such as pentobarbital, meant to quickly make a prisoner unconscious, must be used in executions. Legislators rewrote the law to say any "appropriate anesthetic or sedative" can now be used before executioners would administer a paralyzing agent and a drug that stops an inmate's heart.

    Mississippi plans to use the sedative midazolam, which has been repeatedly challenged nationwide because prisoners have coughed, gasped and moved for extended periods during executions. Lawyers for Jordan and others argue prisoners feel pain as drugs are administered after midazolam, violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    There has yet to be a ruling on midazolam by Mississippi's Supreme Court, and justices specifically sidestepped the question Thursday.

    "Because we find Jordan's claim to be moot, we decline to address whether midazolam is or is not a permissible drug under the current statute," Presiding Justice Jess Dickinson wrote for the majority.

    Last month, the court rejected a similar appeal from Loden because the law had changed.

    Jordan, Loden and a third inmate are challenging midazolam in a federal lawsuit in Jackson. A fourth inmate, Charles Ray Crawford, won permission from Mississippi justices in December to challenge midazolam in state court.

    "It would be extremely premature to set execution dates at this point," said Jordan's lawyer, Jim Craig of the MacArthur Justice Center.

    Jordan argued that the 41-year delay violates the Mississippi Constitution's ban on "cruel or unusual" punishment, different wording than the U.S. Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment. Justices, though, disagreed.

    "The punishment Jordan asks this court to vacate — his death sentence — is not itself unusual," Dickinson wrote. "Regardless of the delay, Jordan will be subjected to the same punishment as every other inmate who has been executed."

    Associate Justices Jim Kitchens and Leslie King and Chief Justice William Waller Jr. dissented. They said lawyers should have gotten a chance to present arguments under the new drug law and further address the delay.

    http://m.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2...mplates=mobile
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  2. #22
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    MISSISSIPPI EXECUTIONS STILL IN LEGAL LIMBO

    By Robert Davidson
    WCBI

    JACKSON, Miss. – A federal judge says he is waiting on a U. S. Supreme Court ruling before he decides if executions in Mississippi will resume.

    Five death row inmates, including the man convicted of the 2000 kidnapping and murder of an Itawamba County teen, are challenging the new drug used for lethal injections.

    Mississippi Southern District Judge Henry Wingate says it would be pointless to rule on the petition filed by Eddie Loden and the other prisoners until the country’s highest court sets the precedent.

    A Missouri case before the U.S. Supreme Court will decide if a phenobarbital injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

    The death row inmates say there is not enough research to prove the phenobarbital injections won’t cause a lingering and painful execution.

    https://www.wcbi.com/mississippi-exe...s-still-limbo/
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  3. #23
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Mississippi justices reject challenges over execution drug

    By JEFF AMY
    The Associated Press

    Mississippi's state Supreme Court on Thursday denied appeals from two death row inmates over Mississippi's plans to execute them using a sedative called midazolam.

    In a pair of 7-2 rulings Thursday, justices found that Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. and Richard Gerald Jordan hadn't presented enough scientific evidence about the drug to justify a hearing on whether inmates executed using it would feel pain.

    A state law calls for an inmate to be unconscious when executed, and the inmates say the drug isn't powerful enough to guarantee unconsciousness.

    However, a federal court challenge involving both Loden and Jordan continues, making it unlikely either will be executed soon.

    Mississippi hasn't executed anyone since 2012, amid efforts by death penalty opponents to cut off supplies of execution drugs and legal challenges to new procedures to get around the resulting shortages of older drugs.

    The use of midazolam has been repeatedly challenged nationwide because prisoners have coughed, gasped and moved for extended periods during executions.

    Mississippi plans to follow the sedative with a second drug to paralyze an inmate and third drug to stop an inmate's heart.

    Jordan has served 41 years on death row for kidnapping and killing Edwina Marta in Harrison County in 1976. Loden pleaded guilty in 2001 to kidnapping, raping and murdering Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County.

    The separate cases were parallel, with prisoners and the state relying on sworn statements from the same experts and judges giving similar reasons for their rulings.

    Presiding Justice Michael Randolph wrote for the majority in Loden's case , describing a sworn statement from Oklahoma State University pharmacology professor Craig W. Stevens questioning midazolam as offering so little scientific proof that it was a "sham."

    Under Mississippi law, that means justices could rule in favor of the state's arguments without ordering a lower-court judge to conduct a hearing weighing from Stevens and the state's expert.

    "Loden has not carried his burden of proof in presenting a substantial showing of the denial of a state or federal right," Randolph wrote.

    Randolph also said the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 rejection of a challenge to midazolam in an Oklahoma case "dictates the outcome in this case," saying Stevens "failed to present any new argument that was not already considered and rejected by the United States Supreme Court."

    Chief Justice William Waller Jr. used similar reasoning but more reserved language in Jordan's case , writing that midazolam is "likely to render the condemned inmate unconscious, so that the execution process should not entail a substantial risk of severe pain."

    "Jordan has failed to provide credible evidence to support the contention that midazolam does not meet the statutory requirements," Waller wrote.

    In both cases, justices Leslie King and James Kitchens dissented, arguing Stevens presented enough proof on behalf of the inmates to justify a further hearing.

    "The majority's conclusion, which is essentially that any scientist who disagrees with the majority's unscientific opinion on midazolam is a sham, is simply not supported," King wrote of Loden's case.

    Both said Mississippi's court needs to consider separately whether midazolam meets Mississippi's state law requirement that a prisoner be unconscious.

    They noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Oklahoma case turned on the separate legal issue of whether the use of midazolam violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

    Jordan and Loden are among plaintiffs in a separate federal court challenge to Mississippi's use of midazolam.

    That case has been stayed pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to Missouri's lethal injection methods. The high court is scheduled to hear the case in November.

    https://www.sunherald.com/news/state...222761790.html
    Last edited by Mike; 12-07-2018 at 03:03 PM. Reason: Better Story

  4. #24
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    STATE DENIES APPEAL OF DEATH ROW INMATE EDDIE LODEN

    MISSISSIPPI (WCBI) - The Mississippi Supreme Court is likely finished with the appeals of long time death row inmate Eddie Loden.

    The state's high court Thursday said it would not rehear its 2018 ruling which denied Loden’s argument that the execution drugs were not foolproof.

    Loden, who plead guilty to the 2000 kidnapping, rape and murder of 16 year old Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County, argued not enough proof existed that the drug midazolam would be painless in the execution process.

    The Mississippi high court ruled Loden presented no evidence the drug would not work as intended.

    This means unless Loden files a brand new appeal citing other issues the state is finished hearing any arguments.

    Loden can now appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

    The now 54-year-old Loden is also part of a federal challenge to execution drug safety filed by death row inmates across the country.

    Until those federal appeals are finalized, Mississippi cannot set an execution date for Loden.

    https://www.wcbi.com/state-denies-ap...e-eddie-loden/
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #25
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    Mississippi requests execution date be set for Thomas Loden

    By Kaitlin Howell
    wjtv.com

    The State of Mississippi has moved to set an execution date for Thomas Edwin Loden, Jr.

    In 2000, Loden kidnapped 16-year-old Leesa Marie Gray after discovering her stranded on the side of the road. Prosecutors said he spent hours repeatedly raping and sexually battering Gray before killing her.

    Loden was indicted for capital murder, rape and four counts of sexually battery. He waived his right to a jury and pled guilty to all six charges.

    The Circuit Court of Itawamba County sentenced Loden to death. He was also sentenced to 30 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) for rape and 30 years for each of his four sexual battery convictions. The circuit court ordered his sentences to run consecutively.

    Prosecutors said Loden challenged his conviction and sentenced many times, but he exhausted all state and federal remedies.

    The State asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to set the execution date within 28 days as no legal impediment exists to deter the setting of the execution date.

    https://www.wjtv.com/news/state/miss...-thomas-loden/

  6. #26
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Since Mississippi DOC now decides how an inmate will be executed, they have choices of Lethal Injection, Electric Chair, Firing Squad or Nitrogen. Expect a flurry of appeals no matter what they choose.
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

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  7. #27
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    Mississippi Supreme Court sets deadline for Eddie Loden to respond to execution date request

    By WILLIAM MOORE
    The Daily Journal

    JACKSON – Before setting a date to execute an Itawamba County man, the state’s highest court will give Thomas Edwin “Eddie” Loden a chance to comment.

    In an order filed Thursday, Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph gave Loden until Friday, Oct. 14, to respond to the state’s request to set an execution date.

    Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed a motion Tuesday asking the Supreme Court to set an execution date for Loden, 58, who has been on Mississippi Death Row since 2001. In the motion, Fitch said Loden had exhausted all state and federal appeals. She asked the Court to set an execution date within 28 days.

    Loden pleaded guilty more than two decades ago to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery in the June 22, 2000, death of Leesa Marie Gray, a 16-year-old waitress at a Dorsey restaurant. Following his plea, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Gardner sentenced Loden to death plus an additional 150 years for the other felony counts.

    Loden, a 1982 graduate of Itawamba AHS, was a gunnery sergeant and head of the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office in Vicksburg in the summer of 2000. He was on a 10-day leave and visiting his invalid grandmother’s Dorsey farm when he visited Comer’s Restaurant on Highway 178 on June 22.

    After spotting the waitress, he allegedly flattened a tire on her car and waited for her to leave work after 10:30 that Thursday night. He pulled up next to her stranded car and offered to help, saying he was a Marine and they did that kind of stuff. When he asked if she had ever thought about becoming a Marine, she said it was the last thing she would do, infuriating him.

    “And that made me very upset,” he later told investigators. “What she said pissed me off so violently, I told her to get in the van.”

    Over the next four hours, Loden sexually assaulted Gray, videotaping portions of the assault before eventually killing her by a combination of suffocation and manual strangulation.

    When Gray didn’t return home from work, her family contacted authorities, and a massive search kicked off Friday morning. Police found the customized Ford van Loden had been driving around noon June 23, 2000, on the family farm. After securing a search warrant, the van was transported to New Albany so the state crime scene investigation team could thoroughly examine it. Gray’s nude body was found under a folded down seat in the back of the van. Her hands and feet were bound.

    Around 6:30 p.m. the same day, Loden was found on Charlie Donald Road in the Ballardsville community. According to court documents, Loden had “the words ‘I’m sorry’ carved into his chest and apparent self-inflicted lacerations on his wrists.” Investigators later found a freshly dug grave in a well-hidden section of the grandmother’s 175-acre farm.

    After an Itawamba County grand jury indicted Loden, he pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment. Because of the extensive local coverage of the case, Judge Gardner approved a change of venue and said he intended to move the trial to Rankin County.

    About a month before the trial was set to begin, Loden changed his mind and pleaded guilty. He did not challenge any of the state’s witnesses and was sentenced to death.

    Over the last two decades, Loden has tried to appeal both his conviction and the death sentence. Each bid for post-conviction relief has been denied.

    In a separate appeal in 2018, Loden joined other prisoners arguing that the state’s lethal injection drugs were unconstitutional. Loden said that midazolam was not an appropriate anesthetic and should not be used in the three-drug mixture the state of Mississippi uses to execute inmates.

    The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected that appeal in December 2018, saying Loden had only offered the unproven arguments of one expert and said “some portions of his affidavits ... are a ‘sham’ and are not supported by established medical literature.” The 6-2 ruling further stated that “the United States Supreme Court considered the same arguments presented in Loden's petition and rejected them.”

    Mississippi resumed executions last fall after a 9-year hiatus. David Neal Cox, who was convicted of killing his estranged wife and sexually assaulting his step-daughter, died by lethal injection Nov. 17, 2021. Before Cox, the last execution was Gary Carl Simmons Jr. in June 2012, for the murder and dismemberment of Jeffery Wolfe over a drug debt.

    https://www.djournal.com/news/crime-...ca4e71fc9.html
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  8. #28
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Fitch: Loden has exhausted appeals and should be executed

    By William Moore
    The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal

    Attorney General Lynn Fitch said a condemned man's only remaining appeal challenges the method of execution, not his guilt or death sentence, meaning the state should be able to move forward with his execution.

    In court documents filed Monday afternoon, Fitch argue that Thomas Edwin "Eddie" Loden ran out of appeals when the state's high court rejected his direct appeal and petitions for post-conviction relief, and the federal courts rejected a separate petition. In 2018, Loden joined other inmates in a federal lawsuit arguing that the drugs used in lethal injection are unconstitutional. That case has not been resolved.

    "Even if Loden and the other prisoner-plaintiffs ... ultimately obtain the relief they seek, their sentences will not be vacated — they will still be serving a lawful death sentence. Only the manner of execution would change," Fitch wrote. "Thus, all of Loden's state and federal remedies concerning the validity of his conviction and sentence have been exhausted."

    The 11-page response filed Oct. 21 requests the Mississippi Supreme Court grant the state's motion and set an execution date within 28 days.

    Loden, 58, has been on Mississippi Death Row since 2001. He pleaded guilty more than two decades ago to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery in the June 22, 2000, death of Leesa Marie Gray, a 16-year-old waitress at a Dorsey restaurant. Following his plea, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Gardner sentenced Loden to death plus an additional 150 years for the other felony counts.

    Fitch filed a motion on Oct. 4 asking the Supreme Court to set an execution date for Loden. On Oct. 14, Loden's defense attorney Stacy Ferraro filed a response, arguing that since U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals has yet to rule on whether Mississippi's choice of drugs violates the Eight Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause, the state's request for an execution date was premature.

    Noting that another one of the prisoners in the federal lawsuit was executed by Oklahoma while the case was still pending, the Attorney General said Loden's execution would not interfere with that lawsuit.

    Loden, a 1982 graduate of Itawamba AHS, was a gunnery sergeant and head of the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office in Vicksburg in the summer of 2000 when he returned to the area to visit relatives. He spotted 16-year-old waitress Leesa Marie Gray when he visited Comer's Restaurant on Highway 178 on June 22.

    He allegedly disabled her car and kidnapped Gray. He sexually assaulted her over a four-hour period, videotaping portions, before killing her.

    Loden initially pleaded not guilty. About a month before the trial was set to begin, however, Loden changed his mind and pleaded guilty. He did not challenge any of the state's witnesses and was sentenced to death.

    Over the last two decades, Loden has tried to appeal both his conviction and the death sentence. Each bid for post-conviction relief has been denied.

    Mississippi resumed executions last fall after a nine-year hiatus. David Neal Cox died by lethal injection Nov. 17, 2021.

    https://news.yahoo.com/fitch-loden-e...035900288.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  9. #29
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    State high court schedules execution date for Thomas Edwin Loden

    By Anthony Warren
    WLBT

    JACKSON, Miss. - The Mississippi Supreme Court has scheduled an execution date for a man convicted of raping and killing a 16-year-old waitress in 2000.

    Pending a stay, Thomas Edwin Loden, Jr., will be put to death on Wednesday, December 14, at 6 p.m., central standard time, or within 24 hours of that date, the court ruled.

    “After due consideration, the court finds that Loden has exhausted all state and federal remedies for the purposes of setting an execution date under Mississippi Code,” Chief Justice Michael Randolph wrote. “Accordingly, the court finds that the state’s motion to set execution date should be granted.”

    The ruling comes weeks after the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office asked the high court to set an execution date. Loden, now 58, has been on death row since 2001, after he pleaded guilty to capital murder and four counts of sexual battery against Leesa Marie Gray.

    Gray, a teen at the time, disappeared after leaving her family’s northern Itawamba County restaurant. Her body was found the next day in Loden’s van.

    That happened on June 22, 2000. Court records found on the Justia Law website state that Loden kidnapped the 16-year-old and “over the next four hours... repeatedly raped and sexually battered Leesa, videotaping portions of the sadistic acts, before murdering her by way of suffocation and manual strangulation.”

    He waived his right to a trial by jury in September of the following year.

    Loden will be the first person executed in the state since David Neal Cox, who was put to death last November.

    Cox was the first person executed in Mississippi since 2012, after he sent a hand-written letter to the Supreme Court saying he wanted to end all of his appeals.

    “The Attorney General’s Office has the responsibility of ensuring the faithful performance of the laws of the state, which have culminated in the Supreme Court’s order of this execution,” said AG Chief of Staff Michelle Williams. “Beyond that, out of respect for the families of the victim and the condemned, we will not comment.”

    https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/17/stat...m_content=wlbt

  10. #30
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Judge mulls arguments in Mississippi death penalty protocol

    By Emily Wagster Pettus
    Associated Press

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge will decide whether to block Mississippi from using three drugs when it puts inmates to death.

    His ruling could determine whether the state carries out its next execution in about two weeks.

    U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate heard arguments Monday in a lawsuit filed in 2015 on behalf of some Mississippi death row inmates.

    Wingate noted that one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Thomas Edwin Loden Jr., faces a Dec. 14 execution date.

    The mother of the 16-year-old girl killed by Loden watched the court hearing.

    Wanda Farris of Fulton says she has waited 22 years for justice for her daughter, Leesa Gray.

    https://kesq.com/news/ap-national-ne...alty-protocol/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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