A 59 year-old Mississippi prison inmate convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of a 20 year-old community college student has a busy day ahead of him, filled with meetings with his lawyer, clergy, prison staff, and pigging out on the meal of his choice before getting strapped to a gurney to help test out if the state’s choice of lethal injection chemicals works, the Associated Press reports.
Lawyer Krissy Nobile says other death row inmates at Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman consider Charles Crawford to be a real condemned’s condemned, always helping them out with their mental health struggles and advocating for them to prison staff, so in a way Crawford’s Wednesday night trip to the chamber is just one more instance of him taking one for the team.
Crawford will be the third inmate nationally to take one for the team this week as on Tuesday Samuel Lee Smithers and Lance Shockley were put to death in Florida and Missouri, respectively.