A man who spent decades on death row was executed yesterday after kidnapping and killing a banker’s wife in the 1970s.
Richard Gerald Jordan, 79, was a Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder. He died by lethal injection at Mississippi State Penitentiary, becoming the longest-serving man on death row in the state.
Before being given the lethal injection, Jordan thanked ‘everyone’ for killing him in a ‘humane way’, and apologised to his victim’s family.
He thanked his wife, his legal team and asked to be forgiven for his crime. His final words were: ‘I will see you on the other side, all of you.’
Jordan kidnapped and later killed Edwina Marter, the wife of bank loan officer Charles Marter, in 1976.
Mrs Marter’s son, Eric, was 11 when his mum was murdered. He said before Jordan’s execution: ‘It should have happened a long time ago. I’m not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.’
In 1976, Jordan called the bank and asked to speak with the loan officer, but when Jordan was given Mr Marter’s name, he hung up and looked up the family’s address before kidnapping Mrs Marter.
Jordan shot and killed Mrs Marter immediately, but still rang her husband after and said she was alive, while demanding a ransom of $25,000.
Before his execution, some groups campaigned for Jordan to be granted clemency, citing his PTSD as a reason for the horrific crime.
The President of the Institute of Military Justice said in a statement: ‘His war service, his war trauma, was considered not relevant in his murder trial.
”We just know so much more than we did 10 years ago, and certainly during Vietnam, about the effect of war trauma on the brain and how that affects ongoing behaviours.’
But Eric Marter said he doesn’t believe that argument, adding that Jordan ‘wanted money’ and couldn’t take Mrs Marter with him, so he killed her.
Jordan’s death comes just a day after another death row inmate was given a lethal injection three decades after raping and murdering a former homecoming queen.
Thomas Lee Gudinas, 51, used his last words to repent for slaying Michelle McGrath, and made a reference to Jesus while strapped to a gurney at the Florida State Prison near Starke. He did not meet with a spiritual adviser.
Although Gudinas’ words were inaudible to those in the viewing room, according to Governor Ron DeSantis’ spokesman Bryan Griffin, the inmate repented and made a reference to Jesus.
As the drugs entered his system through an IV in his left arm, Gudinas’ eyes rolled back, and he had some chest convulsions.
McGrath was at Barbarella’s bar just before 3 am on May 24, 1994, before she vanished.
Gudinas was at the same bar with some friends the night before. An employee at a nearby school discovered McGrath’s body in an alley hours after she disappeared and claimed to have seen Gudinas fleeing the area moments before.
McGrath’s body had signs of sexual assault and severe trauma.
She had been out with a friend and was attacked while walking to her car. McGrath was known to hand out blankets to the homeless and people in need, and even provide them with food.
Gudinas was convicted of killing McGrath and sentenced to death in 1995.
At the time of Gudinas’ guilty verdict, McGrath’s father, Douglas McGrath, said ‘it seems like a tragic waste of his life and my daughter’s life’.
‘We are deprived of my daughter… forever,’ he said at the time.
Gudinas’ attorneys argued that he was too mentally ill for capital punishment under the US Constitution. His defence team filed appeals with the state and US Supreme Court, both which were rejected.
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