Emergency application · Capital case
Death penalty for past crimes
Richard Gerald Jordan v. Mississippi
What did the Court do?
The Court denied the request on June 25, 2025 and refused to halt the execution.
Emergency rulings are temporary and do not decide the underlying case.
What's being asked
Richard Gerald Jordan, a Mississippi death-row prisoner, asked the Court to pause his execution while it considered his petition for Supreme Court review. He argues his sentence violates the ban on retroactive harsher punishments because death was not an available penalty when his 1976 crime occurred. Jordan says later Mississippi decisions changed the state's legal approach, undermining the original rejection of his claim. He says the Mississippi Supreme Court rejected his renewed challenge as too late, repetitive, and barred by an earlier ruling.
What the Court did
The Court refused Jordan’s request for a temporary pause of his execution (denied the stay) and refused to hear his case (denied review). It did not decide whether his constitutional challenge is right. The Court did not publish how the justices voted.
What it means
The Court’s emergency ruling concerns temporary relief, not the final answer to Jordan’s constitutional claim. The Mississippi Supreme Court’s rejection of his renewed claim remains in place. The docket lists no related case on the main constitutional question and no argument date.
Sources
Facts on this page come from the Supreme Court docket, orders, and opinions for No. 24A1261. The answers restate that record in plain words; explainer copy is written from the record and the filings only.