A (34:20)
Supreme Court weighed in and so this is actually the murder of Missouri State Highway Patrol Sergeant Carl Duane Graham Jr. And his murderer. Lance Shockley, 48 years old, was just lethally injected at the state prison in Bonterra, Missouri. Graham was murdered on March 20, 2025. But the incident sort of dates back to November 26, 2024, when Lance Shockley and his sister's in law, sister in law's fiance, slash his best friend Jeffrey Bayless were driving around in Bayless's truck. They got into an accident near Van Buren, Missouri and Bayless died. Shockley fled the scene leaving behind beer cans, a tequila bottle. Sergeant Graham was tasked, who was 37 years old, was tasked with investigating this and was, was piecing together invol a case for involuntary manslaughter. And he was a 12 year veteran of the Missouri Highway Patrol. He had a four year old son, but he was ambushed at his home and shot with a rifle. His spinal cord was severed, he fell to the ground and then Shockley approached him and shot him in the face and shoulder, killing him. So this man Shockley was, so he was killing a police officer in order to cover up his crime. So going from involuntary manslaughter to like murdering a police officer. So he, he was convicted and there's been a lot of, you know, consternation because the self published novel thing and you know, the defense in this case and his post conviction relief team have always said, well it's a circumstantial case. There's no DNA. Why the hell would there be DNA? Like, like this is like, I mean this is a case where he sniped someone essentially and shot them with a gun. It's not like a rape murder. So they're, they're circumstantial cases become like a bad word in true crime. I think that's stupid. A lot of very good cases are circumstantial. In this case, the guy's car borrowed from his grandmother, a red Pontiac Grand Am, a pretty distinctive looking car was seen near the victim's house at the time of the murder. They found bullet fragments that match fragments on Shockley's uncle's property. They he had a motive and he then asked his grandmother to provide an alibi for him for no reason. He also owned a the same caliber rifle. So, I mean, I don't know. They never found the murder weapon. I'm okay with a circumstantial case. It seems like a pretty good one. You know, they kept on asking, look, let's do DNA. Which was a stalling tactic to get him not executed, but they executed him anyway. And this is what Graham's family had to say. Quote, Today has brought our family a measure of finality that we've been waiting for since March 20, 2005, when we lost Dwayne in the most senseless and devastating way imaginable. And the grip of losing Dwayne has left a profound emptiness in all of us that touches every part of our daily lives. No court proceeding nor what happened here today can ever bring Dwayne back or heal the hole left in our hearts. But after all of these years, there is some measure of peace knowing that this part of the process is over. End quote. And then Colonel Michael Turner, the superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol said, quote, Since 1931, the patrol has lost 31 officers in line of duty. Tonight marks the end of a 20 years long chapter for Duane's family, friends and fellow troopers. Loss of Duane is a profound reminder of the dangers that every trooper and law enforcement officer accepts when they put on this uniform. It's also a terrible reminder of the sacrifices that too many families are forced to bear. Sergeant Carl Dwayne Graham Jr. Badge 223 will forever be a part of the patrol's history. End quote. So Shockley's dead and, and that was kind of the finality of that case that we previously covered. Let's talk about this Mississippi case. Mississippi case. Another lethal injection that just happened. There just seemed to be a lot of executions going on. Right, Right. My source for this one is cnn. Oh, and Associated Press was my source for the previous one. So Charles Ray Crawford, 59 years old, was executed at the Miss Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchment, Mississippi on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. And he was executed lethally injected over the murder of 20 year old Christy Ray, who was murdered by him in 1993. Christy Denise Wright, she was an only child. Cases where parents lose their only child really mess me up for some reason. She was attending Northeast Mississippi Community College. She wanted to attend MSU or Mississippi State university. And she had a boyfriend. They were together for three years. She worked at a bank where her mom worked. And she and her mother, on January 29, 1993, left the bank. They were gonna see each other at home. And she also had a date with her boyfriend. But when her mom called her at home, Christy did not answer. Her mom gets home, she finds Kristy's car is gone. She finds a handwritten ransom note for Christy. And they, they contact police. They find force entry. The screen of her bedroom window was cut. They find it in disarray. And ultimately there's a. In a different house, in, in Crawford's family's house, there are. There's a ransom note made from magazine cutouts for a woman named Jennifer found in the attic of his former father in law. And the father in law does the right thing and contacts police. And police track down Crawford. He is coming back from what he claims was a hunting trip. And he denies any involvement at first in Christy's disappearance, but ultimately he claims, well, I don't remember anything because I was blacking out. But he leads police to her body in heavily wooded area near an abandoned barn. And they. He's convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering her. So at the same time, he had been on trial at that time for raping a 17 year old girl and hitting her friend with a hammer. So it's like he did this twice. He's convicted on both of those situations. Now this, you got the death penalty. And then it came to the Supreme Court, as it, as it sometimes does, the issue here and what he wanted was an emergency appeal. He was denied this. And this was a last minute thing. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissent. And what this came down to was Crawford's attorneys basically conceded that Crawford killed Ray, that he killed Christie. They wanted to do an insanity defense. Now, when you look at the circumstances here, his lawyers were correct because he led police to the body. But Crawford, brilliant legal mind that he was, obviously didn't want to do this and, and apparently didn't want to do this. And so he felt like these lawyers had just done something he didn't want to do, even though he didn't want to do it. And the rule, I take it, is that you got to do what your client wants.
