In the final minutes before Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate was executed, he delivered a chilling message to the family of the woman he had brutally murdered nearly five decades ago.

On the evening of June 25, 79-year-old Richard Gerald Jordan—once a Vietnam War veteran and later a convicted murderer—faced his execution inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. After a long and painful journey spanning 48 years, justice had reached its conclusion. At exactly 6:16 p.m., Jordan was pronounced dead by lethal injection, bringing an end to one of the most drawn-out death penalty cases in the state’s history.

It all began back in January 1976, when Jordan made a call to Gulf National Bank in Gulfport. He asked to speak with a loan officer. When Charles Marter’s name was mentioned, Jordan abruptly hung up the phone and used a directory to locate the Marter family’s home address. Disguising himself as an electrician, Jordan went to the banker’s house, where he kidnapped Marter’s wife, 37-year-old Edwina Marter. At the time, she was the mother of two young sons, just 11 and 3 years old.

Brandishing a firearm, Jordan forced Edwina into a car and drove her deep into the remote stretches of DeSoto National Forest. It was there, according to Mississippi Public Broadcasting, that Jordan “shot her in the back of the head when she tried to run away.” In a horrifying twist, he later called her husband to demand a $25,000 ransom, lying that Edwina was still alive.

Police arrested Jordan the following day in a hotel in Mobile, Alabama.

In 1977, he was sentenced to death for the heinous crime. Yet, instead of a swift resolution, the case dragged on for decades, with Jordan filing numerous appeals. At one point, he even sued the state over its lethal injection protocol—a legal battle that delayed his execution but ultimately didn’t change its course. Over the years, Jordan was resentenced to death three more times—in 1977, 1983, and again in 1998.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his final appeal, a silent but definitive signal that his time had finally run out.

For the Marter family, the execution had been a long-awaited moment. Eric Marter, who was just 11 years old when his mother was taken from him, spoke with the Associated Press prior to the execution. “I’m not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt…I know what he did. He wanted money, and he couldn’t take her with him. And he – so he did what he did,” Eric said. “He needs to be punished.”

Now 59 years old, Eric shared that other members of the family would attend the execution in his place, including his 52-year-old brother Kevin and their 89-year-old father. “I don’t really have any real desire to go basically and waste my time,” Eric told the Clarion Ledger earlier this month. “I would [have thought] that this had been taken care of 35–40 years ago. It’s been probably too long.”

At approximately 6 p.m., as the lethal injection was administered in front of an audience that included both Edwina’s relatives and Jordan’s wife, the former soldier was given the opportunity to say his final words. Jordan began by thanking those involved in the process: “First, I would like to thank everyone for a humane way of doing this.” He then apologized to the Marter family, expressed gratitude toward his lawyer, and turned to his wife with a heartfelt message: “I love you all very much. I will see you on the other side, all of you.”

As the drugs took effect, Jordan lay motionless, his mouth slightly open as he took deep, steady breaths. Moments later, he was officially declared dead. For Edwina’s family, that moment brought a sense of long-delayed relief.

At a press conference held shortly after the execution, a family member named Keith Degruy read a statement on behalf of Edwina’s husband and two sons. The message was filled with raw emotion and pointed reflection. In it, they said Jordan should have endured the same level of fear and helplessness that Edwina experienced in her final moments.

“She had to suffer while he drug her around but knew she probably wouldn’t live through it,” Degruy read aloud. “Why should he get to live in prison and die of natural causes? We feel that he should have to endure the suffering of knowing his death was only hours away just like Edwina had to endure.”

He continued, “Nothing will bring back our mom, sister, and our friend. Nothing can ever change what Jordan took from us 49 years ago. Jordan tried desperately to change his ruling so he could simply die in prison. We never had an option.”

Speaking again to the Associated Press, Eric reiterated his belief that justice had been far too slow in coming. “It should have happened a long time ago,” he said.

Nearly 50 years after a cold-blooded murder tore a family apart, the long and painful path to justice has finally reached its conclusion. For Richard Gerald Jordan, the end came with a deep breath and a few final words. For the Marter family, the pain will likely never go away—but after 48 years of waiting, this chapter has finally closed.

Let us know your thoughts on Jordan’s last words—and feel free to share this story so we can hear from others.