Longest-Serving Man on Mississippi's Death Row Executed After Nearly Five Decades

Strategic Insights -

Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, was executed on June 25, 2025, nearly five decades after he kidnapped and killed a bank loan officer's wife in a violent ransom scheme. Jordan was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter, and his execution was the third in the state in the last 10 years. The Trump administration seeks to resume death row executions at the federal level, with President Trump signing an executive order stating that capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes. Jordan's execution comes amid an overall uptick in the use of capital punishment in the U.S. since January, with four executions carried out in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina earlier this month.

Key Takeaways:

  • Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, was executed on June 25, 2025, after nearly five decades on death row.
  • Jordan was sentenced to death in 1976 for kidnapping and killing Edwina Marter, a bank loan officer's wife, and was one of several on the state's death row who sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol.
  • Jordan's execution was the third in the state in the last 10 years, following Thomas Loden's execution in December 2022.
  • The Trump administration seeks to resume death row executions at the federal level, with President Trump signing an executive order stating that capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes.
  • Jordan's execution comes amid an overall uptick in the use of capital punishment in the U.S. since January, with four executions carried out in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina earlier this month.
  • Jordan's lawyer, Krissy Nobile, argued that he was denied due process rights due to a lack of mental health professionals to assist his defense, which would have allowed his jury to hear about his Vietnam experiences and war trauma.
  • A recent petition asking Gov. Tate Reeves for clemency echoed Nobile's claim, stating that Jordan suffered severe PTSD after serving three back-to-back tours in Vietnam.
  • Edwina Marter's son, Eric Marter, said that his family would not be in attendance at the execution, stating that his mother's killer "needs to be punished."

Statistics:

  • 5 decades: the amount of time Richard Gerald Jordan spent on death row before his execution on June 25, 2025.
  • 3: the number of executions carried out in Mississippi in the last 10 years, with Jordan's execution being the third.
  • 22: the number of people sentenced in the 1970s who were still on death row as of the beginning of 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
  • 4: the number of executions carried out in Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina earlier this month.
  • 1: the number of execution carried out in Mississippi in the last 3 years, with Jordan's execution being the first in that time period.
  • 11: the age of Eric Marter, Edwina Marter's son, when she was killed.

Sources:

  • "Mississippi Executes Man After Nearly 5 Decades on Death Row" by Impact Media, dated June 25, 2025.
  • "A Killer's Last Words: 'I Will See You on the Other Side'" by Impact Media, dated June 25, 2025.
  • "The Death Penalty Information Center" website, accessed on June 25, 2025.