Mississippi set to execute man for killing 16-year-old girl

In a late-night ruling on Dec. 7, a federal decide declined to dam Mississippi from finishing up the execution amid a pending lawsuit from Loden and 4 Mississippi demise row inmates over the state’s deadly injection protocol. Mississippi’s most up-to-date execution was in November 2021.

Throughout the summer season forward of what ought to have been Grey’s senior 12 months of highschool, she had labored as a waitress at her uncle’s restaurant in northeast Mississippi. On June 22, 2000, she left work after darkish and have become stranded with a flat tire on a rural highway.

Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter with family within the space, encountered Grey on the highway round 10:45 p.m. He stopped and commenced talking with {the teenager} concerning the flat tire. “Don’t fear. I’m a Marine. We do this type of stuff,” he stated.

Loden informed investigators he turned offended after Grey allegedly stated she would by no means need to be a Marine, and that he ordered her into his van. He spent 4 hours sexually assaulting her earlier than strangling and suffocating her, based on an interview he gave investigators.

Courtroom information present that on the afternoon of June 23, 2000, “Loden was found mendacity by the facet of a highway with the phrases ‘I’m sorry’ carved into his chest and obvious self-inflicted lacerations on his wrists.”

After pleading responsible in September 2001, Loden informed Grey’s family and friends throughout his sentencing: “I hope you will have some sense of justice once you depart right here at this time.”

Wanda Farris, Grey’s mom, described her daughter as a “happy-go-lucky, at all times smiling” teenager who aspired to turn out to be an elementary faculty instructor.

“She wasn’t good, now, thoughts you,” Farris stated. “However she strived to do proper.”

Farris plans on attending the execution Wednesday.

In 2015, attorneys for the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Middle sued the Mississippi jail system on behalf of two demise row inmates, saying the state’s deadly injection protocol is inhumane. Loden and two different Mississippi demise row inmates later joined as plaintiffs.

The Mississippi Division of Corrections revealed in courtroom papers in July 2021 that it had acquired three medicine for its deadly injection protocol: midazolam, which is a sedative; vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscle mass; and potassium chloride, which stops the guts.

Jim Craig, a MacArthur Middle legal professional, stated at a November courtroom listening to that since 2019, solely Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Tennessee have performed executions utilizing a three-drug protocol.

In response to the Demise Penalty Info Middle, 27 states have the demise penalty. Craig stated a majority of death-penalty states and the federal authorities used a three-drug protocol in 2008, however the federal authorities and most of these states have since began utilizing one drug.

In November, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a “top-to-bottom” overview of the state’s capital punishment system after a sequence of failed deadly injections.

Per week earlier than Loden’s scheduled execution, U.S. District Choose Henry Wingate handed down a ruling saying the execution might occur even whereas the lawsuit is pending. He wrote that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom had upheld a three-drug deadly injection protocol as just lately as seven years in the past in a case from Oklahoma.

Loden’s attorneys did reply to requests for remark.

There are 36 inmates on demise row in Mississippi. Demise Penalty Motion, a gaggle against capital punishment, convened a information convention Tuesday in entrance of the state capitol in Jackson to voice their opposition to Loden’s execution.

“Clearly, one thing in him snapped for him to commit such a horrific crime,” stated Mitzi Magleby, a spokesperson for the Mississippi chapter of Ignite Justice, a company that advocates for legal justice reform. “Mr. Loden was instantly remorseful. Shouldn’t there be room for grace and mercy in such a scenario?”

Farris informed The Related Press on Friday that she forgave Loden years in the past, however she didn’t imagine his apology.

“I don’t significantly need to see any person die,” Farris stated. “However I do imagine within the demise penalty. … I do imagine in justice.”

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Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report. Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points. Observe him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.