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Thread: Richard Gerald Jordan - Mississippi Death Row

  1. #31
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Inmates take lethal injection drug challenge to Mississippi Supreme Court

    JACKSON - Two Mississippi death row inmates have filed fresh challenges to the state’s lethal injection procedures with the Mississippi Supreme Court.

    The move came after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told them a state court should determine whether Mississippi was breaking state law by using a new drug.

    Richard Jordan and Gerald Loden filed their appeals Wednesday, saying the court should rule illegal Mississippi’s plan to use midazolam as a sedative because it’s not the kind of drug called for by state law.

    Jordan, now 70, was convicted of kidnapping and killing Edwina Marta in Harrison County on Jan. 13, 1976.

    Rachael Ring, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jim Hood, said his office is reviewing the appeals.

    The court actions are part of a series of continuing legal skirmishes nationwide over lethal injection drugs.

    In August, U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate had issued a preliminary injunction blocking Mississippi from putting anyone to death. The appeals court overruled Wingate in February, but Wingate’s injunction remained in place until Tuesday, when the appeals court published its ruling. Since then, Hood’s office has been free to ask the state Supreme Court to set execution dates for inmates who have exhausted their other appeals. Hood hasn’t yet done so.

    Jordan’s attorney, Jim Craig, predicted state Supreme Court justices wouldn’t approve execution dates while challenges to midazolam were pending. He said Hood has been ducking the issue since 2014.

    “All AG Hood has done is file motions and briefs to evade a court hearing where we can prove that the Mississippi Department of Corrections’ procedure will torture prisoners in the death chamber,” Craig said. “If he really thinks we can’t prove our case, General Hood needs to come out from his hiding place and meet us in court.”

    Mississippi law requires a three-drug process, specifying an “ultra-short-acting barbiturate” followed by a paralyzing agent and a drug that stops an inmate’s heart. But Mississippi and other states have increasingly struggled to obtain such drugs since 2010, as manufacturers refuse to sell them for executions.

    “Not only is midazolam not an ultra short-acting barbiturate, it is not a barbiturate at all,” say both appeals. Lawyers for both men argue that the Mississippi Department of Corrections can’t unilaterally change a punishment that the Legislature wrote into law without usurping lawmakers’ power.

    Midazolam doesn’t render someone unconscious as quickly as a barbiturate. Craig argues midazolam leaves an inmate at risk of severe pain during execution, violating the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution’s bar on cruel and unusual punishment. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 upheld as constitutional Oklahoma’s use of midazolam.

    Jordan’s appeal raises an additional argument, arguing that his 40-yearlong wait between a death sentence and execution equals cruel and unusual punishment.

    Jordan had agreed to serve life without parole after successfully challenging his sentence three times, but got the state Supreme Court to rule that Jordan could have only been sentenced to death or life with possibility of parole. A prosecutor then won a death penalty for the fourth time in a 1998 sentencing trial.

    “These extraordinary circumstances make his execution excessive and disproportionate to the crime and thus in violation of both the federal and state constitutions,” the appeal states.

    Loden pleaded guilty in 2001 to kidnapping, raping and murdering Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County.

    http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/...e88691072.html
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  2. #32
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Jordan's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
    Case Nos.: (15-60604)
    Decision Date: February 10, 2016
    Rehearing Denied: June 27, 2016

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....es/16-6903.htm

  3. #33
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    Mississippi Justices Reject 1 Challenge to Execution Drug

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court is dismissing one of the challenges pending to the state's plans for lethal injections.

    In a 6-3 decision Thursday, justices rejected a challenge by death row inmate Richard Jordan to use of a particular injection drug because lawmakers changed state law. Justices also rejected Jordan's claim that his 40 years death row make his execution cruel and unusual.

    But it's unlikely that Attorney General Jim Hood will ask justices to set an execution date for Jordan, because Jordan still has a federal lawsuit pending. It claims that the sedative midazolam won't render people unconscious, meaning prisoners could feel pain as executioners administer a second and third drug to kill them.

    Another condemned inmate, Charles Ray Crawford, is pursuing a similar challenge to midazolam in state court.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...execution-drug
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  4. #34
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    June 16, 2017

    Mississippi to Seek Execution Dates for 2 Inmates

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Attorney General Jim Hood said Thursday that he will ask the Mississippi Supreme Court to approve execution dates for two inmates, even though court challenges are still pending to the state's lethal injection methods.

    Hood spokeswoman Margaret Ann Morgan said the state would seek dates for Richard Jordan and Thomas Loden if state prison officials confirm they have needed drugs. Jordan has served 41-years on death row for kidnapping and killing Edwina Marta in Harrison County in 1976. Loden pleaded guilty in 2001 to kidnapping, raping and murdering Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County.

    Hood, a Democrat, can't go ahead though until the Supreme Court finalizes rulings in both cases. A lawyer for Loden is already seeking a rehearing, and Jordan's lawyer said he will do the same. That could cause a months-long delay, and it's not clear if justices will be willing to allow executions to proceed with other challenges going on.

    In a 6-3 decision, justices rejected a challenge by Jordan to use a particular injection drug because lawmakers changed state law. Justices also rejected Jordan's claim that his 41 years on death row make his execution unconstitutional.

    Before this year, state law specified that a fast-acting barbiturate such as pentobarbital, meant to quickly make a prisoner unconscious, must be used in executions. Legislators rewrote the law to say any "appropriate anesthetic or sedative" can now be used before executioners would administer a paralyzing agent and a drug that stops an inmate's heart.

    Mississippi plans to use the sedative midazolam, which has been repeatedly challenged nationwide because prisoners have coughed, gasped and moved for extended periods during executions. Lawyers for Jordan and others argue prisoners feel pain as drugs are administered after midazolam, violating the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    There has yet to be a ruling on midazolam by Mississippi's Supreme Court, and justices specifically sidestepped the question Thursday.

    "Because we find Jordan's claim to be moot, we decline to address whether midazolam is or is not a permissible drug under the current statute," Presiding Justice Jess Dickinson wrote for the majority.

    Last month, the court rejected a similar appeal from Loden because the law had changed.

    Jordan, Loden and a third inmate are challenging midazolam in a federal lawsuit in Jackson. A fourth inmate, Charles Ray Crawford, won permission from Mississippi justices in December to challenge midazolam in state court.

    "It would be extremely premature to set execution dates at this point," said Jordan's lawyer, Jim Craig of the MacArthur Justice Center.

    Jordan argued that the 41-year delay violates the Mississippi Constitution's ban on "cruel or unusual" punishment, different wording than the U.S. Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment. Justices, though, disagreed.

    "The punishment Jordan asks this court to vacate — his death sentence — is not itself unusual," Dickinson wrote. "Regardless of the delay, Jordan will be subjected to the same punishment as every other inmate who has been executed."

    Associate Justices Jim Kitchens and Leslie King and Chief Justice William Waller Jr. dissented. They said lawyers should have gotten a chance to present arguments under the new drug law and further address the delay.

    http://m.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2...mplates=mobile
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  5. #35
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    Death Row Inmate files for post-conviction relief

    Death Row inmate Richard Gerald Jordan filed a Second Successive Petition for Post-Conviction Relief Thursday. Attorney General Jim Hood has asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to set an execution date for Jordan on or before August 27. Jordan is the state's longest-serving death row inmate.

    A jury found Jordan guilty twice of kidnapping and murdering Edwina Marter in 1976. At one point, Jordan's death sentence was reduced to a life sentence, but the death sentence was reinstated in 1998.

    In one of his petitions, Jordan is raising questions about the drugs used in lethal injection executions.

    http://m.msnewsnow.com/msnewsnow/db_...tguid=1C5aqfAj
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  6. #36
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    US Supreme Court rejects 2 Mississippi death row appeals

    By Emily Wagster Pettus
    The Kansas City Star

    JACKSON, MISS. - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals from two Mississippi death row inmates.

    However, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, Margaret Ann Morgan, said Richard Gerald Jordan and Timothy Nelson Evans have additional appeals remaining. Neither has an execution date, and "neither is cleared for execution," by the Supreme Court decision, Morgan said.

    Jordan , now 72, has been on death row longer than any Mississippi inmate. He was sentenced to death in 1976 for the kidnapping and killing of Edwina Marter earlier that year in Harrison County.

    Mississippi Supreme Court records show Jordan traveled from Louisiana to Gulfport, Mississippi, where he called Gulf National Bank and asked to speak to a loan officer. After he was told Charles Marter could speak with him, Jordan ended the call, looked up Marter's home address in a telephone book, went to the house and got in by pretending to work for the electric company.

    Records show Jordan kidnapped Edwina Marter, took her to a forest and shot her, then later called her husband and demanded $25,000, saying she was safe.

    Jordan is among the inmates challenging Mississippi's lethal injection procedure, with a federal trial set for Aug. 27.

    Evans , now 61, was convicted in 2013 for the 2010 killing of Wenda Holling in Hancock County. Court records show Evans had previously been romantically involved with Holling but was living in her home as a tenant when he strangled her. Investigators found Evans used Holling's credit card after her death.

    Mississippi's last execution was in June 2012.

    In a dissent Thursday, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that the cases of Jordan and Evans illustrate what he had previously written in other death penalty cases — that the death penalty, as applied in the U.S. today, involves "unconscionably long delays, arbitrary application and serious unreliability."

    Breyer wrote that the Supreme Court should consider an argument made by Jordan, that execution after decades on death row violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

    Breyer also wrote that Jordan and Nelson were both sentenced to death from the 2nd Circuit Court District, and that Evans' attorneys said the district on the Gulf Coast accounts for "the largest number of death sentences" among Mississippi's 22 circuit court districts since 1976. Breyer said that shows the arbitrary application of the death penalty.

    Jordan's attorney, Jim Craig, said it's notable that Breyer analyzed the Mississippi cases and found "evidence for the abolition of the death penalty."

    https://www.kansascity.com/news/poli...214032354.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #37
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Mississippi justices reject challenges over execution drug

    By JEFF AMY
    The Associated Press

    Mississippi's state Supreme Court on Thursday denied appeals from two death row inmates over Mississippi's plans to execute them using a sedative called midazolam.

    In a pair of 7-2 rulings Thursday, justices found that Thomas Edwin Loden Jr. and Richard Gerald Jordan hadn't presented enough scientific evidence about the drug to justify a hearing on whether inmates executed using it would feel pain.

    A state law calls for an inmate to be unconscious when executed, and the inmates say the drug isn't powerful enough to guarantee unconsciousness.

    However, a federal court challenge involving both Loden and Jordan continues, making it unlikely either will be executed soon.

    Mississippi hasn't executed anyone since 2012, amid efforts by death penalty opponents to cut off supplies of execution drugs and legal challenges to new procedures to get around the resulting shortages of older drugs.

    The use of midazolam has been repeatedly challenged nationwide because prisoners have coughed, gasped and moved for extended periods during executions.

    Mississippi plans to follow the sedative with a second drug to paralyze an inmate and third drug to stop an inmate's heart.

    Jordan has served 41 years on death row for kidnapping and killing Edwina Marta in Harrison County in 1976. Loden pleaded guilty in 2001 to kidnapping, raping and murdering Leesa Marie Gray in Itawamba County.

    The separate cases were parallel, with prisoners and the state relying on sworn statements from the same experts and judges giving similar reasons for their rulings.

    Presiding Justice Michael Randolph wrote for the majority in Loden's case , describing a sworn statement from Oklahoma State University pharmacology professor Craig W. Stevens questioning midazolam as offering so little scientific proof that it was a "sham."

    Under Mississippi law, that means justices could rule in favor of the state's arguments without ordering a lower-court judge to conduct a hearing weighing from Stevens and the state's expert.

    "Loden has not carried his burden of proof in presenting a substantial showing of the denial of a state or federal right," Randolph wrote.

    Randolph also said the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 rejection of a challenge to midazolam in an Oklahoma case "dictates the outcome in this case," saying Stevens "failed to present any new argument that was not already considered and rejected by the United States Supreme Court."

    Chief Justice William Waller Jr. used similar reasoning but more reserved language in Jordan's case , writing that midazolam is "likely to render the condemned inmate unconscious, so that the execution process should not entail a substantial risk of severe pain."

    "Jordan has failed to provide credible evidence to support the contention that midazolam does not meet the statutory requirements," Waller wrote.

    In both cases, justices Leslie King and James Kitchens dissented, arguing Stevens presented enough proof on behalf of the inmates to justify a further hearing.

    "The majority's conclusion, which is essentially that any scientist who disagrees with the majority's unscientific opinion on midazolam is a sham, is simply not supported," King wrote of Loden's case.

    Both said Mississippi's court needs to consider separately whether midazolam meets Mississippi's state law requirement that a prisoner be unconscious.

    They noted that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Oklahoma case turned on the separate legal issue of whether the use of midazolam violated the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

    Jordan and Loden are among plaintiffs in a separate federal court challenge to Mississippi's use of midazolam.

    That case has been stayed pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in a challenge to Missouri's lethal injection methods. The high court is scheduled to hear the case in November.

    https://www.sunherald.com/news/state...222761790.html

  8. #38
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Distributed for conference September 29, 2020.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/19-1361.html
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  9. #39
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    Will this guy ever be executed? Mississippi has been a pretend death penalty state since 2015.

  10. #40
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Mississippi halter executions because of the Bucklew situation. Now that Bucklew is dead, Mississippi is likely on the verge of restarting
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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