Execution of Richard Jordan officially carried out

PARCHMAN, Miss (WXXV) – Richard Jordan, Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate and the man convicted of killing a Gulfport woman back in 1976, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Mississippi Department of Corrections officials announced Jordan was pronounced dead at 6:16 PM.

MDOC officials said earlier Wednesday afternoon that the 79-year-old Jordan was talkative and appeared to be in a good mood in the hours leading up to his execution.

Jordan was originally convicted of murder in 1976 in the death of Edwina Marter, the wife of a Gulfport banker and mother of two.

Jordan’s conviction was upheld at numerous subsequent retrials and hearings, and a slew of appeals from Jordan’s attorneys seeking to delay and prevent the execution from proceeding were denied by various courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jordan is the first Mississippi death row inmate executed since December 2022.