• Mississippi is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to deny a request to stop the execution of Charles Ray Crawford.
• Crawford, on death row for over 30 years, was convicted of the 1993 kidnapping, rape, and murder of a college student.
• Crawford’s attorneys argue his Sixth Amendment rights were violated when his trial counsel conceded his guilt against his wishes.
• The state contends that Crawford’s legal filings are a last-minute effort and that his guilt is not in question.

More than a week after Charles Ray Crawford filed an emergency petition in the U.S. Supreme Court to stop his execution, the State of Mississippi is asking the Court to deny Crawford’s request.

Crawford, 59, has spent more than 30 years on death row and is scheduled to face execution at 6 p.m. Oct. 15, at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman for the 1993 kidnapping, rape and murder of a Mississippi college student.

Crawford filed two petitions Oct. 1 with the U.S. Supreme Court, one requesting an emergency stay of execution and the other seeking to have his case reviewed on claims of Sixth Amendment violations during his trial.

In a 38-page response filed Thursday, Oct. 9, the state refuted Crawford’s claims, asserting that he “has refused the process he was due, his punishment is just, and his execution will be constitutional.”

The state contends Crawford’s filings are a last-minute effort to halt his execution, years after the case was decided and far too late to be raised now.

The states stated that any “irreparable injury” to Crawford would be because “his lawful death sentence was finally carried out — not because this Court denies a stay.”

“His guilt is not in question — petitioner no doubt committed the crime that sent him to death row,” the state’s Oct. 9 response reads. “Petitioner was sentenced to death by a Mississippi jury in 1994. Three decades of litigation have not demonstrated constitutional errors occurred at trial. The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld his conviction and sentence four times, and lower federal courts have denied him habeas relief. This Court has denied certiorari review at every turn.”

Crawford was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994 for the 1993 kidnapping, rape and murder of Kristy Ray from her Tippah County home in the Chalybeate community. Ray was a 20-year-old student at Northeast Mississippi Community College student.

In 1993, Crawford was out on bond awaiting trial on charges of aggravated assault and rape. Four days before the trial, Crawford broke into Ray’s home, left a ransom note to her family and abducted Ray from her parents’ home in Chalybeate — about 255 miles north of Jackson.

According to court records, Crawford took Ray to a barn, where Crawford handcuffed the community college student and stuffed a sock in her mouth before sexually assaulting her and stabbing her to death on a country road in northeast Mississippi’s Tippah County.

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After Crawford’s family and attorney notified police that they feared Crawford was committing another crime, he was arrested.

“Petitioner initially told officers that he ‘didn’t know Kristy” or why officers wanted to speak to him,” the state’s response reads.

“When asked by FBI agents ‘if Kristy was alive,’ he ‘began to cry’ and ‘admit[ted] that Kristy was no longer alive.’ Petitioner then led officers to Kristy’s body, hidden in a wooded area near the abandoned barn. Her jeans had been ‘pulled down below her hips,’ her ‘hands were cuffed behind her back around a small cedar sapling,’ a ‘sock had been stuffed into her mouth, and a gag was around her head to keep it in place.’”

Court records state an autopsy later revealed Ray’s cause of death was “a large stab wound to the left mid-chest which punctured her heart and left lung, causing extensive internal and external hemorrhaging.” In addition, samples collected from the scene contained Ray and Crawford’s DNA.

More than 30 years after his 1994 conviction, Crawford’s current attorneys said his then-trial defense counsel conceded his guilt to the jury and prepared a defense arguing he was insane at the time of the crime — both stances Crawford opposed.

The attorneys stated defense counsel told jurors in guilt-phase closing arguments that Crawford was “‘legally responsible’ for the charged crimes and that he was ‘still dangerous to the community.’”

“Unsurprisingly,” the jury convicted Crawford and sentenced him to death, the attorneys say.

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“Counsel made those sweeping concessions over petitioner’s repeated and vehement objections, which he expressed to both counsel and the trial court,” the Oct. 1 petition reads. “The trial court’s rejection of petitioner’s objections was a stark violation of the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees an accused the right to decide whether to permit counsel to concede guilt before the jury.”

The state responded by arguing that Crawford never instructed his counsel to maintain his innocence but instead to “‘vigorously advocate for acquittal’ which is exactly what counsel did.”

“Counsel pursued an insanity defense aimed at securing petitioner’s outright acquittal,” the state’s response reads. “The record reflects that counsel conceded underlying facts, yet at all times argued that Crawford was not guilty by reason of insanity.”

Seperately, Crawford’s attorneys filed a motion with the Mississippi Supreme Court requesting a rehearing on the setting of an execution date, arguing that no date should be set until his remedies with the U.S. Supreme Court are exhausted. The motion was denied Thursday, Oct. 9.

Pam Dankins is the breaking news reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at pdankins@gannett.com.