Mississippi judges reject final appeal of man sentenced to death since 1976

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously rejected the final appeal of a man who was on state death row longer than any other inmate.

Richard Gerald Jordan, now 78, was sentenced to death in 1976 for the kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter earlier that year in Harrison County.

The Associated Press emailed the Mississippi attorney general’s office Tuesday asking whether the new ruling could allow the state to set an execution date.

Krissy Nobile, Jordan’s attorney and director of the Mississippi Capital Post-Conviction Counseling Office, said she thinks the state’s judges erred in failing to enforce a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. United States of 2017 which dealt with independent mental health experts in death penalty cases.

“We are exploring all federal and state options for Mr. Jordan and will proceed with a rehearing before the Mississippi Supreme Court,” Nobile said.

Mississippi Supreme Court records show that in January 1976, Jordan traveled from Louisiana to Gulfport, Mississippi, where he called Gulf National Bank and asked to speak with a loan officer. After being informed that Charles Marter could speak with him, Jordan ended the call, looked up Marter’s home address in a telephone book, went to the house and entered pretending to work for the electricity company.

Records show Jordan kidnapped Edwina Marter, took her to a forest and shot her, then called her husband, falsely claimed she was safe and demanded $25,000.

Jordan has filed several appeals against his death sentence. The one denied Tuesday was filed in December 2022. It claimed Jordan was denied due process because he should have had a psychiatric forensic examiner appointed solely for his defense rather than a court-appointed psychiatric forensic examiner who provided conclusions to both the prosecution and its defense.

The Mississippi judges said Jordan’s lawyers raised the issue in his previous appeals and a federal judge ruled that having a court-appointed expert did not violate Jordan’s constitutional rights.

Jordan is one of the death row inmates who challenged the state’s plan to use a sedative called midazolam as one of three drugs used to carry out executions. The other drugs were vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has not issued a final ruling in the execution-related drug case, according to court records. But Wingate decided in December 2022 that he would not prevent the state from execution of Thomas Edwin Lodenone of the inmates who was suing the state on drug charges. Loden was put to death a week later, and it was most recent execution in Mississippi.