15 December 2022 :
Thomas Edwin Loden, 58, White, was executed.
At 6 p.m., the curtain rose in Room 54 of Building 17 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. At 6:01 Thomas "Eddie" Loden spoke of remorse. At 6:03, Loden's eyes began to glaze over. At 6:05, his jaw dropped slightly. After seven more minutes of silence, Loden was pronounced dead at 6:12 by Sunflower County Coroner Heather Burton.
Loden had been sentenced to death in 2001 in the June 22, 2000 rape and murder of 16-years old Leesa Marie Gray.
She was stranded with a flat tire in June 2000 when Loden forced her into his van. Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter, told investigators he became angry after Gray allegedly said she would never want to be a Marine, and he ordered her into his van. He spent four hours sexually assaulting her before strangling and suffocating her, he told investigators.
Loden becomes the first inmate executed this year in Mississippi. The previous execution was in 2011. This was the 23rd execution in Mississippi since the state restarted executions in 1983.
Loden becomes the 18th inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1,558th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.
https://apnews.com/article/lawsuits-mississippi-92d6248f99fb3139c715eff5c9f95f71
