79-year-old executed in the Mississippi after 50 years in the death wing!

79-year-old executed in the Mississippi after 50 years in the death wing!

Parchman, Mississippi, USA - On June 25, 2025, Richard Jordan, a 79-year-old man, was executed in the Mississippi with a poisonous injection. This happened after almost 50 years in the "Couloir des Morts". Jordan was convicted of the murder of Edwina Marter in 1976. With this execution, the state of Mississippi marked the first enforcement since December 2022 and the second in the United States this week after Thomas Gudinas was executed in Florida. To date, 25 executions have already been carried out in the United States this year, with the majority (20) being carried out using injection and only three cases used the sometimes controversial method of nitrogen inhalation.

The execution of Richard Jordan is not only a personal fate, but also takes a look at the far -reaching debate about the death penalty in the USA. As Wikipedia , the death penalty in 27 of the 50 states is allowed and remains a controversial topic in the American society. Despite the fact that 23 countries have now abolished the death penalty, it is still spread in Mississippi, Texas and other southern states. Many of the executions are associated with considerable financial effort that can be up to ten times higher than that of a lifelong stay in prison.

The long waiting time in the couloir of death

Jordan has served the longest prison sentence by a prisoner sentenced to death in the Mississippi. During this time he submitted several appeals, but most of them unsuccessfully. The last attempt was rejected in October 2024. His lawyer Krissy Nobile argued that Jordan had no access to an independent psychologist and that his experience as a Vietnam veteran could have severely affected his psychological constitution. This aspect of his life was not sufficiently taken into account during his process, which supported the petition for pardon, which was also supported by Franklin Rosenblatt, the President of the National Justice Institute.

a martyr in the debate about the death penalty?

Jordan contested his execution with the assertion that the execution protocol used was inhuman. In the past few decades, many have expressed growing skepticism about the death penalty, as well as reported. A large part of the population turned away from the practice, and in 2021 23 states were already without executions.

The discussion about the death penalty in the United States illuminates deeply rooted social and legal questions. Like la Dépêche summarizes, the topic has increasingly controversial in recent decades, especially at a time when more and more states are relying on moratoriums or completely abolishing the death penalty.