Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon to reflect Gov. Tate Reeves’ statement.

Gov. Tate Reeves says he will not block the execution of Mississippi’s oldest and longest-serving inmate, which is set for Wednesday evening.

Reeves said in a statement Tuesday that he rejected a clemency petition for Richard Jordan. The Republican governor said Jordan admitted being guilty of kidnapping Edwina Marter, at gunpoint, from her family’s home in coastal Harrison County in 1976 while her 3-year-old son was sleeping, and of forcing Marter to drive into a forest and killing her by shooting her in the back of the head.

“Following this premeditated and heinous act, Mr. Jordan demanded and was paid a $25,000 ransom prior to being apprehended by law enforcement,” Reeves said.

Jordan, 79, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Reeves said considering clemency requests in death penalty cases is “a somber responsibility” that he takes seriously.

“Justice must be done,” he said.

The governor issued his statement hours after a prison reform advocate publicly implored him to spare Jordan’s life.

“I’m here today to ask our Christian governor to do the Christian thing and show mercy – mercy on a man that has spent 49 years in prison and has done everything he could do to atone for his crime,” Mitzi Magleby said outside the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Reeves declined to block the only two executions Mississippi has carried out since he became governor – one in 2021 and one in 2022.

Jordan was first convicted in 1976 for kidnapping and killing Marter, and it took four trials until a death sentence stuck in 1998.

One of Marter’s sons said Jordan should have been executed long ago.

“I don’t want him to get what he wants,” Eric Marter, who is 59 and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana, told Mississippi Today. “If you want to spend the rest of your life in jail, then I would rather you not get that, and if that means you get executed, you get executed.” 

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday denied Jordan’s request for a stay of execution. Jordan had a separate request for a stay awaiting consideration at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The appeals court wrote that Jordan has received repeated review of his claims in state and federal courts for nearly 50 years.

At this point, “finality acquires an added moral dimension,” the appeals court wrote. “Only with an assurance of real finality can the State execute its moral judgment in a case. Only with real finality can the victims of crime move forward knowing the moral judgment will be carried out.”

Magleby, who has met Jordan, said he has been a model prisoner and is extremely remorseful. She said she believes life without parole would be a sufficient and humane punishment. 

“I believe that it is more of a penalty to do life without parole,” she said. “The death penalty gives you an out-date. Life without parole does not.”

She also delivered a petition asking Reeves to prevent Jordan’s execution. That petition had more than 3,000 signatures.

The news conference was put on by Magleby and Death Penalty Action, who are supporters of Jordan’s cause.

If Jordan’s execution goes forward as scheduled, supporters plan to hold protest vigils Wednesday outside Parchman and the Governor’s Mansion and online.

Human rights group Amnesty International released a statement Tuesday opposing the execution.

 “Governor Tate Reeves is the only person with the power to spare Jordan’s life,” the group said. “He must use this power to halt this execution, commute Richard Jordan’s sentence and work towards ending the death penalty in Mississippi more broadly.”