Charles Ray Crawford, a Mississippi inmate who had been on death row for more than three decades, has officially been executed.

Officials with the Department of Corrections lethally injected Crawford at the Mississippi State Penitentiary on Wednesday at 6 p.m. He was pronounced deceased at 6:15 p.m.

Crawford was convicted of the kidnapping, rape, and killing of Northeast Mississippi Community College student Kristy Ray in 1993. The inmate is reported to have committed these acts against Ray, a 20-year-old from Tippah County, four days before he was set to stand trial on separate aggravated assault and rape charges. The pending charges against Crawford, in part, led to him being handed a death sentence when he was tried for Ray’s killing.

Crawford’s legal team, however, petitioned the U.

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