A man was executed by lethal injection in the United States for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl over twenty years ago.
Thomas Edwin Loden Jr was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. local time in Mississippi on Wednesday, officials said – the second inmate to be executed in the state in 10 years.
Loden had been on death row since 2001 after pleading guilty to murder, rape and four counts of sexual assault against Leesa Marie Gray.
She was stranded with a flat tire in June 2000 when Loden forced her into his van.
The Marine Corps recruiter spent four hours sexually assaulting her before strangling and suffocating her, according to an interview he gave to investigators.
Loden was later discovered lying on the side of a road with the words “I’m sorry” etched into his chest and cuts on his wrists, court documents show.
He was one of five death row inmates who sued Mississippi over its lethal injection protocol.
A federal judge refused to stop the execution, even though the lawsuit was still pending.
Officials said Loden was “remorseful for family” before being executed.
Mrs. Gray had been working as a waitress at her uncle’s restaurant in northeast Mississippi the summer before what was supposed to be her senior year of high school.
She left work after dark on June 22, 2000 and was stranded with a flat tire on a rural road.
Loden met Gray on the street at around 10:45 p.m. and started talking to the teenager about the flat tire, saying, “Don’t worry. I’m a Marine. We do this kind of thing.”
Loden told investigators he became angry after Gray allegedly said he never wanted to be a Marine and ordered her into his van.
After pleading guilty in September 2001, Loden told Gray’s friends and family during his sentencing, “I hope you can get some sense of justice when you get out of here today.”
Mrs. Gray’s mother, Wanda Farris, described her daughter as a “carefree and always smiling” teenager who aspired to be a primary school teacher.
