Richard Jordan, 79, was convicted in 1976 of the murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a bank executive in the town of Gulfport.
A 79-year-old Mississippi man who had spent nearly five decades on death row was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, making it one of two executions carried out in the United States this week.
Richard Jordan, convicted in 1976 for the murder of Edwina Marter, was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. CT at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections. At the time of his death, Jordan was the state’s oldest and longest-serving inmate on death row.
Jordan, a shipyard worker, had kidnapped Marter — the wife of a bank executive in Gulfport — from her home and demanded a $25,000 ransom. He was arrested when he attempted to collect the money. Jordan later confessed to killing Marter and led authorities to her body, which had been hidden in a wooded area. She had been shot.
Jordan’s execution followed that of Thomas Gudinas, 51, who was put to death in Florida on Tuesday. Gudinas was convicted in 1995 for the murder of Michelle McGrath, who disappeared after leaving a bar in Orlando. Her body was found the following day, and Gudinas was arrested soon after.
Florida currently leads the nation in executions this year, having carried out seven. Jordan’s execution was Mississippi’s first since December 2022.
So far in 2025, the United States has conducted 25 executions: 20 by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and three using nitrogen hypoxia — a controversial method that induces death by suffocation through nitrogen gas. United Nations experts have condemned nitrogen hypoxia as inhumane and cruel.
The death penalty remains a divisive issue in the U.S. It has been abolished in 23 states, while three others — California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania — have official moratoriums in place. Former President Donald Trump has voiced strong support for capital punishment and, on his first day in office, called for expanding its use for the most heinous crimes.
