The longest-serving inmate on Mississippi’s death row asked for forgiveness — and was thankful for the “humane” lethal injection that took his life Wednesday — before he eerily promised he would see everyone “on the other side.”

Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam War veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, sat on death row for nearly five decades. He was sentenced to death for the murder and kidnapping of Edwina Marter, a stay-at-home mother of two young boys, in 1976. 

Ahead of his execution, Jordan was one of many death row inmates who sued the Magnolia State over its three-drug execution protocol, asserting that it is inhumane. His final appeals were also denied by the US Supreme Court.

Jordan’s last meal consisted of fast food classics, including chicken tenders, French fries, strawberry ice cream and a root beer float to help beat the heat while his clock ticked.

In his final statement before the 6 p.m. execution, Jordan doled out his gratitude to everyone involved — including his wife, as he asked for her forgiveness.

“First, I would like to thank everyone for a humane way of doing this. I want to apologize to the victim’s family,” Jordan said.

“I will see you on the other side, all of you.”

Jordan was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m. as he lay prone on the gurney, his mouth slightly ajar, according to prison officials.   

Mississippi has only executed three men in the past decade, counting Jordan. The most recent one was carried out in December 2022 for a man who raped and killed a 16-year-old girl in June 2000.

Other southern states tout much higher execution counts — namely Florida, which has carried out seven this year alone, including Wedneday, for a man convicted of raping and killing a woman outside a bar. 

In January 1976, Jordan called the Gulf National Bank in Gulfport and asked to speak with a loan officer. An employee told him that Marter’s husband, Charles, was available.

He immediately hung up and set his sinister plan in motion, looking up the Maters’ home address in a phone book. He went to the home, and kidnapped Edwina before fatally shooting her in a forest.

He eventually called Charles, telling him Edwina was still alive and demanded $25,000. 

Marter’s immediate family did not attend the execution and weren’t interested in hearing his apology.

“It should have happened a long time ago. I’m not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt,” said Eric Marter, who was just 11 when his mother was murdered. 

“He needs to be punished.”

Jordan’s execution also marked the end of his decades-long court process, including four trials and numerous appeals that stretched into his final days.

“He was never given what for a long time the law has entitled him to, which is a mental health professional that is independent of the prosecution and can assist his defense. Because of that, his jury never got to hear about his Vietnam experiences,” Jordan’s lawyer Krissy Nobile, director of Mississippi’s Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, argued in one of his latest appeals, claiming he was denied due process.

A petition sent to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, begging for him to pardon Jordan, asserted the same claims, citing the Vietnam veteran’s severe PTSD that could’ve factored into the murder.

“His war service, his war trauma, was considered not relevant in his murder trial. We just know so much more than we did 10 years ago, and certainly during Vietnam, about the effect of war trauma on the brain and how that affects ongoing behaviors,” petition author Franklin Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said.

Even so, Eric Marter doesn’t buy it. 

“I know what he did. He wanted money, and he couldn’t take her with him. And he — so he did what he did,” he charged

With Post wires