After the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower federal court did not err when it ruled a man had adequate representation at trial, his attorneys are seeking further post-conviction relief.
Charles Crawford was convicted of capital murder in 1994 and sentenced to death for the 1993 kidnapping, rape and murder of 17-year-old Kristy Ray from her Tippah County home in the Chalybeate community.
In May 2023, the Fifth Circuit denied Crawford’s petition for a rehearing, but a month later the court agreed to hear oral arguments, which were heard en banc (a panel of judges) in September 2023.
After oral arguments were considered, the appellate court said the bar is set fairly high to prove ineffective assistance of counsel. The court added that Crawford was not able to prove “that counsel’s failure was both objectively deficient and prejudicial.”
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That means Crawford’s conviction and death sentence will stand, but his attorneys at the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel are continuing to fight for a new trial.
In Crawford’s initial trial, court records show his attorneys admitted the 58-year-old committed the crime, laying the groundwork to show Crawford was insane, even though Crawford disagreed with that defense.
“Charles Crawford’s constitutional rights to make the most fundamental choices regarding whether, and how, to defend his life and liberty were violated when counsel admitted his guilt and pursued an unwanted insanity defense over Crawford’s timely and repeated objections,” CPCC attorney Beth Windham wrote in his petition for post-conviction relief.
The Sixth Amendment guarantees citizens the right to maintain innocence, even if counsel advises otherwise, according to an article in Harvard Law Review.
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The trial lawyers said in court documents they did not believe they had any other way to defend Crawford against the state’s charges and felt the insanity plea would serve him best. While that may be helpful in some capital cases, Windham wrote, it should only be applied when the accused person does not object.
“Crawford timely and repeatedly objected both to his counsel’s concession of guilt and the pursuit of an insanity defense,” Windham said. “Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in McCoy v. Louisiana, Crawford’s constitutional rights to client autonomy were violated, and the error is a structural one requiring a new trial.”
The state has not yet responded to Crawford’s latest petition, filed in December with the Mississippi Supreme Court.
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Lici Beveridge is a reporter for the Hattiesburg American and Clarion Ledger. Contact her at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Charles Crawford’s attorneys erred in insanity plea at MS trial, he says