Mississippi completes execution for murder committed nearly 50 years ago

As reported in this AP piece, the “longest-serving man on Mississippi’s death row was executed Wednesday, nearly five decades after he kidnapped and killed a bank loan officer’s wife in a violent ransom scheme.” Here is more:

Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder whose final appeals were denied without comment by the U.S. Supreme Court, was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter. He died by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman….

During a news conference after the execution, Keith Degruy, a spokesperson for Marter’s family, read a statement on behalf of her two sons and husband, who were not present at the execution. “Nothing will bring back our mom, sister and our friend. Nothing can ever change what Jordan took from us 49 years ago. Jordan tried desperately to change his ruling so he can simply die in prison. We never had an option,” he said.

Jordan’s execution was the third in the state in the last 10 years; previously the most recent one was carried out in December 2022. It came a day after a man was put to death in Florida, in what is shaping up to be a year with the most executions since 2015….

As of the beginning of the year, Jordan was one of 22 people sentenced in the 1970s who were still on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. His execution ended a decades-long court process that included four trials and numerous appeals. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected a petition that argued he was denied due process rights.