Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. pled guilty in 2001 to capital murder, rape and three charges of sexual assault on 16-year-old Leesa Marie Gray. Her mother attended the execution but was unavailable for comment.
Prison officials say in his final hours before the execution, Loden expressed remorse for his crimes. Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain says Loden was “deeply remorseful.”
“At 6:12 a.m. they pronounced him deceased. It was a normal process as far as you can call it normal. By that I mean that there were no glitches, he went to sleep, and so he closed his eyes and he did what people normally do in this situation,” says Cain. “Breath got short, and then he passed away.”
In his final words before execution, witnesses report that Loden said “For the past 20 years, I’ve tried to do a good deed every single day to make up for the life I took from this world. I know these are mere words and cannot erase the damage I did. If today brings you nothing else, I hope you get peace and closure.”
Loden was a part of a legal battle in Mississippi against the death penalty, but last week a federal judge denied requests to stay the execution.
A vigil is being held outside of the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman as proceedings moved forward with the execution of Loden.
As the execution proceedings were underway, advocates opposing the death sentence shared words of prayer and read scripture. Six people attended the rally in person, but 50 others were joined on a video call. Sally Francis of Jackson is a minister in the Methodist Church. She says an execution does not make Mississippi a safer place.
“The whole circumstance with Leesa being killed and now him being killed and having two deaths in a state where we’re part of the public part of the community altogether. And it’s just really hard,” says Francis.
Protesters delivered a petition to the governor’s office on Tuesday calling on him to block the execution. The letter had more than 3,000 signatures from Mississippians.
A few weeks ago, the State of Alabama failed to execute an inmate on death row as operators were unable to reach a vein when administering the deadly three-drug cocktail. Mississippi corrections officials say the state does periodic “mock executions and drills” to have proper planning for lethal injection, and no issues were reported in Loden’s case.
