Overview
- Officials pronounced Crawford, 59, dead at 6:15 p.m. CDT after a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.
- He was convicted in 1994 of abducting 20-year-old Kristy Ray from her Tippah County home, raping her, and fatally stabbing her.
- Jurors treated a prior rape conviction as an aggravating circumstance in imposing the death sentence.
- The Mississippi Supreme Court in September rejected his Sixth Amendment claim tied to McCoy v. Louisiana as untimely, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.
- Gov. Tate Reeves denied clemency; it was Mississippi’s second execution of 2025 during a week that also saw executions in Florida and Missouri, with 38 carried out nationwide this year.