Mississippi Executes Longest-Serving Death Row Inmate After 49 Years

Richard Jordan was convicted in 1976 for the murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a bank manager in the coastal town of Gulfport.

Jordan, who admitted to the murder, had kidnapped Marter and demanded a ransom of 25,000 dollars. He was arrested when he was going to pick up the money and then led the police to a forest where he had hidden Marter's body.

Although Jordan's guilt was never really in doubt, he managed to postpone the execution many times through appeals. He was ultimately Mississippi's longest-serving and oldest inmate on death row, according to the prison authorities. He became the 25th person to be executed in the USA this year.