Fitch: Loden has exhausted appeals and should be executed
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Oct. 24—JACKSON — Attorney General Lynn Fitch said a condemned man's only remaining appeal challenges the method of execution, not his guilt or death sentence, meaning the state should be able to move forward with his execution.
In court documents filed Monday afternoon, Fitch argue that Thomas Edwin "Eddie" Loden ran out of appeals when the state's high court rejected his direct appeal and petitions for post-conviction relief, and the federal courts rejected a separate petition. In 2018, Loden joined other inmates in a federal lawsuit arguing that the drugs used in lethal injection are unconstitutional. That case has not been resolved.
"Even if Loden and the other prisoner-plaintiffs ... ultimately obtain the relief they seek, their sentences will not be vacated — they will still be serving a lawful death sentence. Only the manner of execution would change," Fitch wrote. "Thus, all of Loden's state and federal remedies concerning the validity of his conviction and sentence have been exhausted."
The 11-page response filed Oct. 21 requests the Mississippi Supreme Court grant the state's motion and set an execution date within 28 days.
Loden, 58, has been on Mississippi Death Row since 2001. He pleaded guilty more than two decades ago to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery in the June 22, 2000, death of Leesa Marie Gray, a 16-year-old waitress at a Dorsey restaurant. Following his plea, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Gardner sentenced Loden to death plus an additional 150 years for the other felony counts.
Fitch filed a motion on Oct. 4 asking the Supreme Court to set an execution date for Loden. On Oct. 14, Loden's defense attorney Stacy Ferraro filed a response, arguing that since U.S. Fifth Court of Appeals has yet to rule on whether Mississippi's choice of drugs violates the Eight Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause, the state's request for an execution date was premature.
Noting that another one of the prisoners in the federal lawsuit was executed by Oklahoma while the case was still pending, the Attorney General said Loden's execution would not interfere with that lawsuit.
Loden, a 1982 graduate of Itawamba AHS, was a gunnery sergeant and head of the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office in Vicksburg in the summer of 2000 when he returned to the area to visit relatives. He spotted 16-year-old waitress Leesa Marie Gray when he visited Comer's Restaurant on Highway 178 on June 22.
He allegedly disabled her car and kidnapped Gray. He sexually assaulted her over a four-hour period, videotaping portions, before killing her.
Loden initially pleaded not guilty. About a month before the trial was set to begin, however, Loden changed his mind and pleaded guilty. He did not challenge any of the state's witnesses and was sentenced to death.
Over the last two decades, Loden has tried to appeal both his conviction and the death sentence. Each bid for post-conviction relief has been denied.
Mississippi resumed executions last fall after a nine-year hiatus. David Neal Cox died by lethal injection Nov. 17, 2021.
