JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi attorney general on Tuesday requested an execution date for the state's longest-serving death row inmate.
Richard Gerald Jordan, now 78, was sentenced to death in 1976 for the kidnapping and killing of Edwina Marter earlier that year in Harrison County.
The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected Jordan's latest appeal Tuesday, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed papers hours later asking the court to set a date for the lethal injection.
“Jordan’s state and federal remedies have been exhausted,” Special Assistant Attorney General Allison Kay Hartman wrote on behalf of Fitch.
However, Krissy Nobile, Jordan's attorney and director of the Mississippi Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, told The Associated Press that she thinks state justices erred in not applying a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that dealt with independent mental health experts in death penalty cases.
“We are exploring all federal and state options for Mr. Jordan and will be moving for rehearing in the Mississippi Supreme Court,” Nobile said.
Mississippi Supreme Court records show that in January 1976, 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 to death, then later called her husband, falsely said she was safe and demanded $25,000.
Jordan has filed multiple appeals of his death sentence. The one denied Tuesday was filed in December 2022. It argued Jordan was denied due process because he should have had a psychiatric examiner appointed solely for his defense rather than a court-appointed psychiatric examiner who provided findings to both the prosecution and his defense.
Mississippi justices said Jordan's attorneys had raised the issue in his previous appeals, and that a federal judge ruled having one court-appointed expert did not violate Jordan's constitutional rights.
Jordan is one of the death row inmates who challenged the state's plan to use a sedative called midazolam as one of the three drugs to carry out executions. The other drugs were vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes muscles, and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate has not issued a final decision in the execution drugs case, according to court records. But Wingate ruled in December 2022 that he would not block the state from executing Thomas Edwin Loden, one of the inmates who was suing the state over the drugs. Loden was put to death a week later, and that was the most recent execution in Mississippi.
This undated photo provided by the Mississippi Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Richard Gerald Jordan. (Mississippi Department of Corrections via AP)
HOUSTON (AP) — An attorney said Tuesday he is representing 120 accusers who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Houston attorney Tony Buzbee said he expects lawsuits to be filed within the next month, with most expected to be filed in New York and Los Angeles. Buzbee described the victims as 60 males and 60 females, and that 25 were minors at the time of the alleged misconduct. One individual alleged he was 9 years old when he was abused, Buzbee said. The allegations cover a period from 1991 to this year.
“This type of sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation should never happen in the United States or anywhere else. This should have never been allowed to go on for so long. This conduct has created a mass of individuals who are injured, scared and scarred,” Buzbee said at a news conference.
Following the announcement of the accusations in Texas, an attorney for Combs said the performer “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus.”
“That said, Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” attorney Erica Wolff said in a statement. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation.”
Buzbee said more than 3,280 individuals contacted his firm and alleged they were victimized by Combs and that after vetting the allegations, his firm decided to represent 120 people. Other cases are still being reviewed. He said some of his clients have spoken with the FBI.
The individuals that Buzbee’s firm is representing are from more than 25 states, with the majority from California, New York, Georgia and Florida.
The abuse that’s being alleged took place mostly at parties held in New York, California and Florida where individuals were given drinks that were laced with drugs, Buzbee said.
Some of the alleged conduct took place at auditions where “many times, especially young people, people wanting to break into the industry were coerced into this type of conduct in the promise of being made a star,” Buzbee said.
Combs, 54, has been locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since pleading not guilty Sept. 17 to federal charges that he used his “power and prestige” to induce female victims into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers in events dubbed “Freak Offs.”
Other alleged victims have already filed lawsuits against Combs that include allegations of sexual assault.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. His attorney said he is innocent and will fight to clear his name.
Combs is one of the best-known music executives, producers and performers across hip-hop, having won three Grammys and worked with artists such as Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112. He founded Bad Boy Records in 1993, the influential fashion line Sean John, a vodka brand and the Revolt TV network. He sold off his stake in the latter company in June of this year.
Buzbee has also represented women who accused NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson of sexual assault and misconduct.
Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee, second from left, holds a news conference at his office announcing that he's representing 120 accusers who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee holds a news conference at his office announcing that he's representing 120 accusers who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Houston lawyer Tony Buzbee holds a news conference at his office announcing that he's representing 120 accusers who have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via AP)
