State executes convicted killer

Charles Ray Crawford (Mississippi Department of Corrections)
Charles Ray Crawford (Mississippi Department of Corrections)

The state of Mississippi executed Charles Ray Crawford Wednesday for the 1993 killing of Northeast Mississippi Community College student Kristy Ray.

The Mississippi Department of Corrections declared him dead at 6:15 p.m. at the State Penitentiary.

Crawford kidnapped and raped the student from Tippah County before taking her life. She was 20. He was 26.

A jury in Lafayette County Circuit Court found him guilty of capital murder a year later. The execution came more than three decades after he was sentenced to die.

A violent night

Mississippi experiences a violent Friday night with six dead following a mass shooting in Leland after the high school homecoming game. Heidelberg High School’s homecoming was marred by an on campus shooting that left two dead, including an expectant mother. And law enforcement in Sharkey County had to deal with a shooting outside of the South Delta football game in Anguilla.