One of America’s longest-serving Death Row inmates tucked into a McDonald’s-style meal before he was executed overnight. Richard Gerald Jordan, a 79-year-old Vietnam veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder , received a lethal injection at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in Parchman. He was one of several people on Mississippi鈥檚 Death Row suing the state over its three-drug execution protocol, which they claim is inhumane. Jordan was handed the death sentence nearly five decades ago after he kidnapped and killed a bank loan officer鈥檚 wife in a violent ransom scheme. The convicted murderer’s sentence went ahead after the Supreme Court of the United States rejected three emergency stay applications, including one within the final hour of the scheduled execution. The justices gave no comment on why they denied the applications and petitions for review. His execution happened a day after a man was executed in Florida in a year shaping up to carry out the most executions in America since 2015. But before he was set to be taken to the chair, Jordan feasted on a final meal of chicken tenders, fries, strawberry ice cream and a root beer float, also known as a ‘black cow’. He was sentenced to death in 1976 for killing and kidnapping Edwina Marter, a mother of two young children, earlier that year. As of the beginning of the year, Jordan was one of 22 people across the country sentenced for crimes in the 1970s still on Death Row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Eric Marter, who was 11 when his mother was killed, said neither he, his brother, nor his father would attend the execution, but other family members were there. 鈥淚t should have happened a long time ago,鈥 he said of the execution. 鈥淚鈥檓 not really interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.鈥 Mississippi Supreme Court records show that in January 1976, Jordan called the Gulf National Bank in Gulfport, Mississippi, and asked to speak with a loan officer. After he was told Charles Marter could speak to him, he hung up. He then looked up the Marters鈥 home address in a telephone book and kidnapped Edwina Marter. According to court records, Jordan took her to a forest and shot her to death before calling her husband, claiming she was safe and demanding $25,000 (拢18,364). 鈥淗e needed to be punished,鈥 Eric Marter said. The execution ended Jordan鈥檚 decades-long court process that included four trials and numerous appeals. On Monday, the US Supreme Court rejected a petition that claimed he was denied due process rights. 鈥淗e 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,鈥 said lawyer Krissy Nobile, the director of Mississippi鈥檚 Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel, who represents Jordan. 鈥淏ecause of that, his jury never got to hear about his Vietnam experiences.鈥 A recent petition asking Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves for clemency had echoed Nobile鈥檚 claim. It argued Jordan developed PTSD after serving three back-to-back tours in the Vietnam War, which could have been a factor in his crime. 鈥淗is war service, his war trauma, was considered not relevant in his murder trial,鈥 said Franklin Rosenblatt, the president of the National Institute of Military Justice, who wrote the petition on Jordan鈥檚 behalf. 鈥淲e 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 behaviours.鈥 Eric Marter said he doesn鈥檛 buy that argument. 鈥淚 know what he did. He wanted money, and he couldn鈥檛 take her with him. And he 鈥 so he did what he did,鈥 he said. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here .