The state of Mississippi has officially completed the first inmate execution since 2022.
Richard Gerald Jordan, the 79-year-old Vietnam veteran convicted of kidnapping and killing Edwina Marter on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1976, has officially been put to death. Jordan received a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. His time of death was 6:16 p.m., according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
Multiple attempts by Jordan’s legal counsel and anti-death penalty activist groups to prevent the inmate’s execution proved fruitless. Ahead of Wednesday’s proceedings, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate rejected a request by Jordan’s legal counsel to block the inmate’s execution.
Wingate, who mulled the state’s usage of a three-drug regimen (midazolam, rocuronium bromide, and potassium chloride) to take the life of those convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death, ultimately allowed the state to move forward with the execution on the condition that the dosage unit of midzalom was successful in rendering Jordan unconscious.
Following the green light given by the federal judge and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to get involved in the matter, petitioners turned to Gov. Tate Reeves as Jordan’s final hope. The Republican official, instead, elected not to interfere, allowing the execution to move forward.
“This is a somber responsibility, and one that nobody enjoys. But it is a responsibility I take seriously as part of the oath I took to faithfully discharge the duties of Governor,” Reeves wrote on X. “Justice must be done — and in Mississippi — justice will be done.”
Prior to his execution, Jordan requested a final meal of chicken tenders, French fries, strawberry ice cream, and a root beer float. His execution is the first in Mississippi since 2022 and 24th in state history.
Backstory
Jordan, who was unemployed and strapped for cash, orchestrated a plan to break into a wealthy person’s home back in 1976. The now-inmate called Gulf National Bank and asked to speak with someone in charge of divvying out personal loans. Once informed that Chuck Marter was over commercial loans, Jordan used a telephone directory to find the banker’s Harrison County home address.
He later showed up at the Marter residence posing as an electric company worker needing to check on the circuit breakers in the home.
That’s when Jordan is reported to have kidnapped Edwina Marter and taken her to the DeSoto National Forest in Harrison County, where he fatally shot her. Following the gunfire, the death row inmate called Marter’s husband and told him his wife was alive, seeking $50,000 in ransom before settling on $25,000 as a sufficient figure.
The husband ultimately left the funds at a location off Interstate 10 and Canal Road in Gulfport. Federal agents and local police waited near where the cash had been dropped off. Officers made a move on Jordan when he attempted to retrieve the money. The subject led law enforcement on a chase and successfully evaded police, later ditching his vehicle.
Hours after the chase, a Gulfport police officer spotted Jordan in a taxi cab and took him into custody. Jordan fessed up to killing the victim and pointed officers to the body and the murder weapon. He later claimed to a psychiatrist that a bystander had killed Edwina Marter, but that was neither deemed credible nor used by the defense in court.
