Mississippi Supreme Court rejects appeal of death row inmate convicted in 1976 murder of Gulfport banker’s wife

On October 2, 2024By Rgal Nv

GULFPORT, Miss. (WLOX) – Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate had his appeal denied Tuesday by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Richard Gerald Jordan has been on death row since 1977, when he was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a Gulfport, Jackson County banker on December 12. April 1976.

After his appeal was denied, the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to set an execution date for Jordan.

FLASHBACK: Prosecutor recalls murder that occurred 24 years ago (December 7, 2000)

Since 1976, Jordan, 78, has been tried, convicted and sentenced to death four times.

Jordan’s death sentence was replaced with a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In 1988, the life sentence was reverted to a death sentence.

In 2017, Jordanian lawyers filed a petition for post-conviction relief, arguing that the death sentence should be overturned based on two arguments:

The chemical cocktail used in Mississippi for lethal injections does not comply with state law.
Carrying out the death sentence four decades after Jordan’s first conviction violates the Eighth Amendment’s right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

ALSO READ: Convicted Murderer Appeals Death Sentence to MS Supreme Court (December 13, 2017)

As a result of this petition, Mississippi lawmakers amended the death penalty to keep it constitutional.

Jordan is being held at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman.

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