Death penalty opponents want Mississippi to stop execution of 79-year-old man on death row

Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam War veteran, is scheduled for execution on June 25th for a 1976 kidnapping and murder.

Advocates argue that the death penalty is inhumane and does not deter crime, citing Jordan's remorse and exemplary prison record.

Jordan has been sentenced to death four times, with his initial sentence reduced to life imprisonment before being reinstated.

Executions may be legal in Mississippi but that doesn't make them right, a group of advocates for abolishing the death penalty said during a news conference Wednesday, May 28, on the steps of the state Supreme Court.

In particular, the group is asking justices, prosecutors and lawmakers to stop the execution of 79-year-old Richard Gerald Jordan.

"Stand down, Mississippi," read the sign carried by the Rev. Dr. Jeff Hood of Little Rock, Arkansas, who drove to Jackson to speak in person about the impact of the death penalty, not just on those who are executed, but on "those of us who are in the room," including the prison guards, family members and other witnesses.

"They don't care about any of us," Hood said, calling out Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Gov. Tate Reeves and the state's Supreme Court justices.

Hood said he has held the hands of some of the prisoners as their lives were taken from them, and it is not an easy thing to witness. He said with lethal injection, the prisoner and witnesses can usually see the "poison" dripping into the tubes, signaling certain death. Even worse, Hood said, was witnessing a person executed by nitrogen gas hypoxia. Both methods of execution are legal in Mississippi. Prisoners may also be executed by electrocution or a firing squad.

"I've been to nine executions," Hood said. "On nine different occasions I have seen the state extinguish life. If they had to carry it out themselves, there would be no death penalty."

Jordan is scheduled to be executed June 25 but is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court will grant an emergency stay of execution. The court has not ruled on the application for the stay, which was filed May 21.

The U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged on Wednesday receiving the state's objection to Jordan's request for a stay.

Hood is co-founder of the Execution Intervention Project and was in Jackson as a representative of the Clergy United Against the Death Penalty.

"I think it is so important to realize these folks on death row are human beings, and we can't be human if these guys continue to have a fixation on snuffing them out," Hood said.

He was joined in Jackson by Mississippi prison reform advocate Mitzi Magleby and online by Death Penalty Action's Abraham Bonowitz, who led the digital portion of the event.

Magleby said she has been able to talk to Jordan and his wife, Marcia, on many occasions. She said Jordan was a Vietnam War veteran who did three tours of duty during his service to the Army.

"About 10% of all the people on death row in this country were military veterans," Bonowitz said. "Richard Jordan was a combat veteran who came back severely traumatized. He came back and did not receive the services and support, like many other veterans, that he needed."

When his death sentence was overturned, Jordan was able to work his way up to a trustee position in the prison system, which shows he is a conscientious worker.

"He's been an exemplary prisoner and gained the highest level of trust within the Department of Corrections," Bonowitz said.

Magleby said Jordan is apologetic and ashamed of the crimes he committed during a dark time in his life.

"He made mistakes," Magleby said, "He made some bad mistakes. But I think we need to know Richard Jordan the man before we are quick to judge.

"We know his life is worth saving."

Hood and Magleby did not enter the Supreme Court building, but stood outside to make a plea to the public to demand that state officials reverse their decision.

"The death penalty teaches us to kill people to solve our problems," Hood said, adding that it is not a deterrent to people who are considering committing a crime. "The death penalty is actually the opposite. It encourages murder. It encourages mass shootings."

Bonowitz said having some compassion for a man, who at 79, has spent most of his life in isolation, would be welcome.

Jordan has been on death row in Mississippi since 1977 for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a Gulfport bank executive.

Jordan attempted to collect a ransom from her husband after he had already killed her, according to court records.

He was initially sentenced to death in 1977, but that sentence was later reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in exchange for his confession. He challenged that sentence in hopes of gaining the possibility of parole. Instead, he was resentenced to death for a second time. Subsequent challenges have also resulted in death sentences for Jordan. In all, he was sentenced to death four times.

Jordan is one of 37 prisoners on Mississippi's death row, which is comprised of 36 men and one woman.

Source: clarionledger.com, Lici Beveridge, May 28, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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