JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — The state of Mississippi has set an execution date for an inmate on death row who has been on death row for 21 years after appeals and legal challenges have failed.
In a ruling Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in the case of former U.S. Marine Corps recruiter Thomas Edwin Roden Jr., who was convicted of the 2000 rape and murder of a 16-year-old waitress. Granted the state’s petition. Roden said he will be put to death at 6:00 pm on December 14th, or as soon as he can within 24 hours from that time.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph said, “After due consideration, the court determined that Roden had exhausted all state and federal remedies for the purpose of setting an execution date under Mississippi law.” “Therefore, the court held that the state’s motion to set an execution date should be granted.”
The ruling came after the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office asked the court to set an execution date for Roden on October 4.
Roden’s attorney, Stacey Ferraro objectedargued that her client had not exhausted all remedies to try to avoid the death penalty.
Roden, like other death row inmates, is part of an ongoing federal lawsuit challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol. The State of Mississippi revised its protocol to allow midazolam to be used when thiopental or pentobarbital are not available.
A federal district court granted an injunction barring states from using mixed pentobarbital or midazolam, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. The case has been returned to the district court and is pending.
The state attorney general’s office argued that the pending legal challenge “does not stand in the way of setting up Roden’s execution.” Ferraro strikes back It is “inappropriate” for the court to set a date while the challenge is still in progress.
Ferraro did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
Roden, now 58, has been on death row since pleading guilty to four counts of murder, rape and sexual assault in 2001. According to court documents, Roden kidnapped Lisa Marie Gray as she was stranded on the side of a road in Itawamba County in northern Mississippi on June 22, 2000. According to the documents, Roden spent her four hours raping and sexually beating Gray before choking her to death. .
Roden enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1982, shortly after graduating from Itawamba County High School. He participated in Operation Desert Storm and attended Recruiter School in 1998. Roden began operating his Marine Corps Recruitment Office in Vicksburg, Mississippi later that year.
Roden filed several appeals against his conviction, which were dismissed.
of Mississippi Most recent run It was November. This was her first in nine years in the state.