Death row inmate appeals to U.S. Supreme Court

The death row inmate convicted of killing a Gulfport banker’s wife back in 1976 is now appealing his sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Seventy-eight-year-old Richard Jordan is appealing the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision late last year to deny a rehearing in his case.

He was convicted of kidnapping and later killing Edwina Martel.

Jordan and his legal team are questioning a decision of the court during his initial trial to use a court-appointed psychiatrist to assess Jordan’s mental state, rather than an outside expert.

Jordan claims that the state Supreme Court also did not apply a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding independent mental health experts while considering his last appeal.

A U.S. Supreme Court response to this appeal is expected sometime in early April.