Jimmy Lee Gray

Jimmy Lee Gray
Jimmy Lee Gray
Born	September 25, 1948; Whittier, California, U.S.
Died	September 2, 1983 (aged 34); Mississippi State Penitentiary, Sunflower County, Mississippi, U.S.
Cause of death	Botched execution by gas chamber
Conviction(s)	Arizona; Second degree murder; Mississippi; Capital murder
Criminal penalty	Arizona; 20 years to life; Mississippi; Death
Details
Victims	Elda Louise Prince, 16; Deressa Jean Scales, 3;
Date	January 1968; June 25, 1976;
State(s)	Arizona and Mississippi

Mississippi State Penitentiary, where Gray was held on death row and executed

Jimmy Lee Gray (September 25, 1948 – September 2, 1983)^[1] was an American criminal convicted for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of three-year-old Deressa Jean Scales in 1976.^[2] At the time of this murder, he was free on parole after serving seven years of a 20-year-to-life sentence for the 1968 murder of his 16-year-old girlfriend, Elda Louise Prince in Parker, Arizona.^[3] Scales's parents later sued the state of Arizona for releasing Gray.^[4]

He was executed in 1983 by the state of Mississippi by gas chamber.^[5] He became the first person to be executed in Mississippi since 1976, when capital punishment was reinstated.^[6]

Dan Lohwasser, a reporter for United Press International, was one of the observers who witnessed Gray's execution. Lohwasser's account of Gray's death sparked controversy, because of the suffering that Gray exhibited. At the time of Gray's execution, the gas chamber used in Mississippi had a vertical steel pole directly behind the inmate's chair. There was no headrest or strap used to restrain Gray's head. As Gray began breathing in the toxic gas, he started thrashing his head around, striking the iron bar repeatedly before he finally lost consciousness. Officials decided to clear the observation room eight minutes after the gas had been released, because of Gray's injuries.^[7] The decision to clear the room was sharply criticized by Dennis Balske, Gray's attorney. "Jimmy Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted his moans (eleven, according to the Associated Press)".

Partly due to Gray's botched execution, Mississippi passed legislation making lethal injection the only method of execution for inmates sentenced after July 1, 1984, though three more inmates (Edward Earl Johnson, Connie Ray Evans and Leo Edwards Jr.) sentenced before this date were still executed by lethal gas. Mississippi's gas chamber was decommissioned in 1998.

References

^ "Death Penalty Stats" (XLS). Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
^ "Killer Of 3-Year-Old Mississippi Girl Executed After Justices Reject Plea". The New York Times (September 2, 1983). Retrieved on November 12, 2007.
^ "Father Says Execution Won't Erase His Memories". The New York Times (September 3, 1983). Retrieved on May 30, 2019.
^ "Gray parole". Arizona Daily Star. 1980-08-07. p. 30. Retrieved 2022-03-28.
^ "U.S. Executions Since 1976". The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Retrieved on November 12, 2007.
^ Rheta Grimsley Johnson (September 2, 1983). "Melodrama Of Execution Closes Gray's Tragic Life". The Commercial Appeal. p. 3. Retrieved November 28, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Macdonald, Neil (November 7, 2007). "Might we make executions more civilized, please?". CBC News. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2009.

Sources

Death Penalty In Mississippi. Mississippi Department of Corrections. Retrieved on 2023-05-04.
Stay Of Execution Is Continued. The New York Times (1983-07-07). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
Radelet, Michael L. Some Examples of Post-Furman Botched Executions Archived 2007-11-22 at the Wayback Machine. Death Penalty Information Center (2007-05-24). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
Gray v. Lucas, 463 U.S. 1237 (1983). Retrieved on 2007-11-12.
Cabana, Donald. "Death at Midnight: The Confession of an Executioner. (Northeastern University Press, 1996), p. 7-8.

Preceded by Tim Jackson – 1964	Executions carried out in Mississippi	Succeeded by Edward Earl Johnson – 1987
Preceded by John Louis Evans – Alabama – April 22, 1983	Executions carried out in the United States	Succeeded by Robert Austin Sullivan – Florida – November 30, 1983