JUST EXECUTED: Vietnam Veteran Richard Jordan – 50 Years on Death Row | Last Words & Final Meal
The war veteran was just executed on June 25th, 2025. Richard Gerald Jordan, 79 years old, had been sentenced to death for committing a horrific crime. He spent nearly 50 years on death row in Mississippi, one of the longest times ever recorded, awaiting his execution by lethal injection. In this video, we’ll explore the brutal crime that led to his death sentence, the details of his trial, his final hours, his last meal, and his final words.
In January 1976, 29-year-old Richard Gerald Jordan devised a cold-blooded ransom scheme that would forever alter the lives of a Gulfport family and ultimately lead him to become Mississippi’s longest serving death row inmate. Jordan, a Vietnam War veteran who had served three combat tours totaling 33 months as a helicopter gunner, called G National Bank in Gulfport, and asked to speak with a loan officer.
After learning that Charles Martyr was available to take his call, Jordan hung up, looked up the Martyr family’s home address in a telephone directory, and drove to their residence. Posing as an electric company employee who needed to check the home’s electrical breakers, Jordan gained entry to the martyr house.
He kidnapped 34year-old Edwina Martyr, a mother of two young children, forcing her to leave her three-year-old son sleeping alone in the house while her 10-year-old son was at school. Jordan drove Edwina to a wooded area in the Dotto National Forest in Harrison County where he fatally shot her in the back of the head.
The physical evidence showed that the bullet entered at the lower right occipital area of her brain and traveled upward from right to left, exiting above her left eye. After killing Edwina, Jordan threw the murder weapon into the Big Boxy River, where it was later recovered by police scuba divers.
He then called Charles Martyr at the bank, falsely claiming that Edwina was alive and well, and demanded $25,000 for her safe return. Jordan instructed Charles to place the money wrapped in brown paper on a blue jacket along US Highway 49. But when Charles arrived, he found no jacket because Jordan had spotted that Charles car was being followed by the FBI.
The next morning, Jordan called Charles again, assuring him that Edwina was fine and asking about the children. This time, Charles found the jacket and left the money along Interstate 10 as instructed. When Jordan retrieved the ransom money, two officers attempted to arrest him, leading to a high-speed chase during which Jordan forced the officer’s car off the road and escaped.
He abandoned his vehicle in a shopping center parking lot and hid most of the money in the woods, keeping only a small amount to purchase new clothes. After changing into the new clothes and calling a taxi, Jordan was captured at a roadblock where an officer recognized him.
Jordan confessed to the crime and cooperated fully with investigators, showing them where to find Edwina’s body and the location of the murder weapon. He was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death in 1976. However, Jordan’s case became extraordinarily complex, involving four separate trials and multiple appeals over nearly five decades.
His original death sentence was vacated when automatic death sentences were ruled unconstitutional, leading to a second trial and death sentence in 1977. After successfully appealing this sentence, he received a third death sentence, which was again overturned. Prosecutors then offered Jordan a plea deal for life imprisonment without parole in exchange for waving his appellet rights, but Jordan later violated this agreement by appealing on grounds that life without parole was not a permitted sentence under Mississippi law at the time of his crime. Courts
found the plea agreement improper and granted a new sentencing hearing in 1998 where Jordan was sentenced to death for the fourth time. Throughout his decadesl long legal battle, Jordan’s defense team argued that his Vietnam War trauma was never properly presented to the jury. Jordan had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in combat, including during the bloody 1968 TED offensive at his base in Pubai near Hugh.
His legal team contended that had the jury been informed about his combat experiences and mental health struggles, he might not have received a death sentence. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed Richard Gerald Jordan’s death warrant for June 25th, 2025, stating that justice must be served and in Mississippi it will be.
The US Supreme Court denied Jordan’s final appeals on June 23rd, clearing the way for his scheduled execution. Richard Gerald Jordan woke up today at 6:00 a.m. On Wednesday, he was allowed to visit with family members, attorneys, and spiritual advisers. His family was permitted to stay with him
until 2:00 p.m. His final meal consisted of chicken tenders, French fries, strawberry ice cream, and a root beer float. Jordan was moved to an isolation cell at 400 p.m. and executed by lethal injection at 6:16 p.m. on June 25th, 2025 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. During the procedure, he experienced mild convulsions for about 3 to 5 minutes and was pronounced dead by a physician at 6:23 p.m.
He was 79 years old at the time of his death and had spent nearly 49 years on death row, making him the longest serving death row inmate in Mississippi’s history. When given the opportunity to make a final statement, Jordan said, “First of all, I want to thank everyone for the humane way this was done. I want to apologize to the victim’s family.
I love you all very much. I will see you on the other side, all of you.” His words were interpreted by some as sarcastic, especially amid ongoing criticism regarding the ingredients used in Mississippi’s lethal injection protocol. Jordan was the third person executed in Mississippi in the past decade following the state’s most recent execution in December 2022.
His execution was carried out using Mississippi’s three drug lethal injection protocol, which he and other inmates had previously challenged as cruel and unusual punishment. Edwina Martyr’s sons, the eldest, who was 11 years old when their mother was murdered, and the youngest just three at the time, are now 59 and 49 years old.
After nearly 5 decades, they finally saw justice served. However, Eric Martyr, the older brother, stated that neither he nor his sibling would attend the execution. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you’d like to see more, click on the video appearing on your screen now. [Music]
