For nearly half a century, Richard Gerald Jordan has awaited his fate on death row—now, Mississippi is pushing for the final chapter in the state's longest serving death row inmate.
Jordan has been on death row since 1976 after he was convicted of kidnapping and murdering Edwina Marter, the wife of a bank in Gulfport.
Following his denied appeal, the office of the Mississippi Attorney General filed a motion requesting the Supreme Court schedule an execution date for Jordan.
On Tuesday evening, the court received a motion from the office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel for an extension of time to November 14 to petition for rehearing on behalf of Jordan.
Since his conviction in 1976, Jordan has been tried, convicted, and received the death sentence four times.
His sentence was once commuted to life without parole; however, by 1988 the life sentence reverted back to a death sentence.
In 2017, the inmate's attorneys filed for post-conviction relief, arguing that the death sentence should be overturned due to two reasons, according to WLOX.
One, the chemical cocktail used in Mississippi for lethal injection doesn't comply with state law, and two, carrying out the death sentence four decades after Jordan was initially sentenced violates the Eighth Amendment right to protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
Following the attorney's filing, the state's lawmakers adjusted the death penalty in order to keep it constitutional.
