PARCHMAN, Miss.–Mississippi has executed its longest-serving death row inmate Richard Jordan. Jordan was put to death by lethal injection on death row at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Wednesday evening.
Jordan, 79, was sentenced to death in 1976 for the kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter, 35, of Gulfport, who was shot in the back of the head at DeSoto National Forest, after Jordan had received a payment of $25,000 for her safe return.
Gov. Tate Reeves called his act “heinous” Tuesday, saying that Jordan was guilty of the crime and Reeves would not intervene.
Jordan’s attorneys had argued both that he had PTSD from serving in Vietnam and was unfit for execution, and that the drug cocktail used to lethally inject people sentenced to death in Mississippi, amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, neither argument making an impact in the courts.
Marc McClure, superintendent at Parchman, told reporters Wednesday that Jordan had been in a good mood, telling stories about his past.
He had been in a cell near the execution chamber since Sunday. He spent that day visiting with family and friends.
Mississippi has executed three people in the last ten years, the last in 2022.
