Mississippi
MS inmate Richard Jordan denied relief in execution drug appeal day before execution set
Executions in Mississippi: What to know
A look at the process of determining when and how a prisoner on death row in Mississippi should be executed.
- Richard Gerald Jordan’s appeal to halt his execution was denied by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
- The court upheld the previous ruling, stating Jordan didn’t prove the three-drug lethal injection protocol would cause undue suffering.
- Jordan, convicted of a 1976 kidnapping and murder, is the oldest and longest-serving Mississippi death row inmate.
- His final appeal rests with an emergency stay of execution filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mississippi prisoner Richard Gerald Jordan was dealt another blow in his last-minute effort to stop his execution, set for Wednesday, June 25.
On Tuesday afternoon, June 24, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate’s ruling on Jordan’s petition for a preliminary injunction to protest the state’s three-drug protocol for lethal injection executions.
Jordan was convicted in 1977 for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter.
At 79, Jordan is the oldest and longest-serving prisoner on Mississippi’s death row.
The appellate judges said in their opinion that Jordan did not meet his burden of proof that he would be subject to needless pain and suffering after the administration of the first drug, midazolam, a sedative.
“The court found that Jordan offered no evidence that the two prisoners recently executed under this protocol suffered any pain,” the Fifth Circuit court wrote in its opinion.
The court referred to the Mississippi executions of David Cox in 2021 and Thomas Loden in 2022.
The Fifth Circuit judges also said at this point, the execution would be the only just conclusion to the case.
“Jordan has enjoyed repeated review of his claims in the Mississippi courts, the district court, this court, and the Supreme Court — for nearly 50 years,” the court said, quoting from a 1998 California case, Calderon v. Thompson. “At this point, ‘finality acquires an added moral dimension. Only with an assurance of real finality can the State execute its moral judgment in a case.
“Only with real finality can the victims of crime move forward knowing the moral judgment will be carried out.’”
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Tate Reeves denied clemency to Jordan.
“The governor has reviewed the clemency petition and met with his counsel to discuss the request and the facts of this case,” Reeves’ Deputy Chief of Staff Cory Custer said in a statement. “By his own admission, Richard Jordan is guilty of kidnapping for ransom Mrs. Edwina Marter at gunpoint from her home where her three-year-old son was sleeping, forcing her to drive into the Desoto National Forest and shooting her in the back of the head.
“Following this premeditated and heinous act, Mr. Jordan demanded and was paid a $25,000 ransom prior to being apprehended by law enforcement. He has been convicted by multiple juries of capital murder and sentenced to death. His most recent round of appeals and stay motions have been considered and rejected by the United States Supreme Court, the Mississippi Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Unted States District Court.
“At this time, all necessary procedures are being followed with the anticipation that the execution will proceed as scheduled.”
Earlier Tuesday, Amnesty International sent a statement to media outlets, asking Reeves to grant Jordan’s request for clemency.
“Governor Tate Reeves is the only person with the power to spare Jordan’s life,” Amnesty International USA’s Deputy Director of Research Justin Mazzola said in the statement. “He must use this power to halt this execution, commute Richard Jordan’s sentence and work towards ending the death penalty in Mississippi more broadly.
“Richard Jordan’s death sentence has been reversed three times for constitutional errors, as well as due to Jordan’s good behavior and positive influence in prison, his remorse about the crime and his military service in Vietnam. However, there is strong evidence that his eventual, fourth death sentence was driven by unconstitutional statements made at trial by a vindictive prosecutor.
“Regardless of the specifics of Richard Jordan’s case, the death penalty is wrong in all cases because it violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. Governor Reeves must act to stop this execution.”
Jordan has one option left in an emergency stay of execution filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
Lici Beveridge is a reporter for the Hattiesburg American and Clarion Ledger. Contact her at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
Tour of the Mississippi Delta was eye-opening
Published 6:51 pm Thursday, July 17, 2025
When I first moved to Vicksburg way back in 2014 to take a job across the river in Louisiana, someone described it as a “nice little Delta town.” I really didn’t know what that meant back then, and after getting my own little tour of the area known as the Mississippi Delta earlier this month, I realize I still didn’t fully grasp its significance.
I think the idea of the Mississippi Delta really began to come into focus for me the first time I heard the quote attributed to writer David Cohn that said, “The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg.”
By that time, I was already working here at The Post, so I knew what Catfish Row meant. I had also recently taken my kids for a quick weekend in Memphis, where we stayed at the Peabody and got to witness the famous ducks in the lobby. So, I had more of an idea of at least the geographical borders of the area.
But a quick trip with the girlfriend over the Fourth of July weekend really opened my eyes to so many things I had only heard about, and plenty of others I had no idea existed.
In Cleveland, for example — a place I have driven through countless times when the kiddos still went to school in Tate County — I had never ventured farther from the highway than Walmart or Kroger. So, boy was I surprised when we turned the opposite direction off Highway 161 and suddenly there was the GRAMMY Museum and Delta State University. Did you know Mississippi has the most Grammy winners per capita of any state? Did you know Delta State’s unofficial mascot is the Fighting Okra? Because I didn’t. But I do now!
Headed north, we came to a town I had at least driven through once — Greenville —- although it had been a quick trip to drop something off at the newspaper there. The girlfriend having grown up in Greenville, I got to see how much more the town has to offer, including what I now understand to be a not-so-hidden gem in Doe’s Eat Place. If you haven’t made the trip to this nondescript cinder-block building where you enter through the kitchen, sit within inches of other people’s tables and have some of the absolute best food of your life in the process, I obviously recommend it highly. Again: who knew? Apparently a lot of folks, because it was packed.
Yet another stop that taught me something I didn’t know about Delta culture was a visit to McCarty’s Pottery in Merigold. I won’t pretend to be a person that knows much about art. I’ve been told that whatever art you like is good art. If that’s the case, McCarty’s is really good art. Aside from the wide variety of pottery, the winding building it is housed in and the accompanying grounds alone are worth the trip.
At the northernmost point on our trip, I finally had the chance to step foot into Clarksdale. Being a big music fan, people who know me are always shocked when they find out I haven’t visited. Well, now I have, and from the famous crossroads where Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the Devil to become an amazing guitar player to the Ground Zero Blues Club owned by Morgan Freeman, I was able to check several things off my Mississippi travel bucket list.
And I guess we picked an appropriate time to make the trip. We made it home just as the movie “Sinners” was making its debut on streaming. And if you missed Mississippi Today’s glowing review of the film’s precise portrayal of the Mississippi Delta, it’s worth the watch. Even for someone newly educated on the area, it was neat to see and seemed a historically accurate depiction of the region, aside from the vampires, that is. We didn’t see any of those.
Maybe next time.
Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.
ATLANTA — Jeff Lebby, one year later, said he was not expecting the season Mississippi State football endured in 2024.
There were optimistic expectations for Lebby as the first-year MSU coach. Instead, the Bulldogs were blown out at home by Toledo in Week 3, then quarterback Blake Shapen suffered a season-ending injury in Week 4 before the season derailed. They finished 2-10 with no wins in the SEC.
Mississippi State added over 50 new players since then, while keeping the coaching staff mostly intact. The obvious goal is to improve the talent. Accounts from Lebby and Mississippi State players though at SEC media days on July 16 said that an improved locker room environment has been noticeable.
“We’re not trying to create a new culture; we’re going to be exactly true to who we are supposed to be and what we’re creating,” Lebby said. “I think the difference in the team today compared to a year ago today, besides the physical parts of it, is we are closer as a football program and as a football team. The only way you do that is you spend time and you have to take the right people.
“I’ve continued to talk about that. Protect the locker room … by taking the right people. That’s what it’s all about.”
Where Mississippi State football changed for 2025 season
Mississippi State added at least one transfer at every single position except kicker and punter. There were focuses on some positions of need, like defensive line where MSU fielded the worst scoring defense in the SEC.
MSU also flipped its wide receiver room, which lost four of its top five players from last season. Ten of the new players are wide receivers, six via the transfer portal.
“Whether it’s transfers or high school players, at the end of the day, they’ve got to be good enough, but then you want to take the right people,” Lebby said. “People matter. And so for us, changing the entire receiver room, that has helped us tremendously, and it’s helped the locker room. I think we are in a much better place as a team today than we were a year ago, which is going to be something that’s important for us.”
Shapen, one of the three Mississippi State players at SEC media days, said he’s noticed a difference behind the scenes.
“I would say for us, coming into the building, you can tell the energy level is way higher,” he said. “Even from just going in the lunch room to dinner, whatever it may be. Everybody’s energetic. It’s little things. The locker room is energetic.
“I feel like last year, at times, it was a little bit dead in some areas. I feel like you can just tell a different level of energy.”
Mississippi State picked to finish last in SEC preseason poll
Outside expectations remain low for the Bulldogs though. They played four opponents last season that made the 12-team College Football Playoff and will play those four teams again in 2025. That doesn’t include five other SEC opponents who won at least seven games each in 2024 that MSU plays again.
The USA TODAY SEC preseason poll picked Mississippi State to finish last in the conference for a second straight season.
“We don’t really look at that stuff too much,” safety Isaac Smith said. “We were 2-10 last year, so I would expect that, especially with the way we played last year. We don’t really worry about that right now.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Dr. Wendell Helveston with the Mississippi Neurological says ten percent of the worldwide population suffers from migraines and twenty percent of women suffer. He shared the signs and symptoms and the latest treatment options available.
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