Charles Crawford becomes second Mississippi inmate executed this year

AI-assisted summary

Charles Ray Crawford was executed by lethal injection for the 1993 kidnapping, rape, and murder of Kristy Ray.

Crawford's legal team filed last-minute appeals, which were ultimately denied by state and federal courts.

This was Mississippi's second execution of the year and the 38th nationwide.

Anti-death penalty protesters gathered outside the prison and the governor's mansion prior to the execution.

For the second time this year, the curtain inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary’s Unit 17 execution chamber lifted at 6 p.m.

Behind the glass, Charles Ray Crawford, a Mississippi death-row inmate for the past 30 years, lay strapped to a gurney, a white sheet covering most of his body with a small part of his red shirt peeking through.

Standing over his right sho