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Oklahoma follows new protocol ahead of Richard Glossip's execution
Appeals court halts Oklahoma man’s execution amid new doubts over guilt
(about 1 hour later)
Attorneys for an Oklahoma death row inmate are making a last-minute effort to spare their client’s life just hours before his scheduled execution, arguing they have new evidence to support his claim that he was framed.
An appeals court agreed to halt the execution of an Oklahoma man with just hours to spare Wednesday after his attorneys asked for time to review new evidence, including a fellow inmate’s claim that he overheard the other man convicted in the case admit he acted alone.
Prison officials are following a new execution protocol following the US supreme court’s ruling that upheld the state’s three-drug formula.
Related: Is Oklahoma about to execute an innocent man? Richard Glossip's supporters say yes
Related: Is Oklahoma about to execute an innocent man? Richard Glossip's supporters say yes
Under the protocol, inmate Richard Glossip’s telephone and visitation privileges were terminated at 11pm on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s scheduled execution. He is still allowed to speak with his attorneys.
Richard Eugene Glossip was twice convicted of ordering the killing of Barry Van Treese, who owned the Oklahoma City motel where he worked. His co-worker, Justin Sneed, was convicted of fatally beating Van Treese and was a key prosecution witness in Glossip’s trials.
Glossip’s execution is scheduled for 3pm CT on Wednesday. Department of corrections spokeswoman Terri Watkins said the time was moved from 6pm so the process did not disrupt a shift change and meal time at the facility, and so that media and execution witnesses would be off the prison grounds before dark.
Glossip, 52, was scheduled to be executed at 3pm. But the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals agreed to delay the lethal injection after Glossip’s attorneys said they had new evidence. Among the material is a signed affidavit from another inmate, Michael Scott, who claims he heard Sneed say “he set Richard Glossip up, and that Richard Glossip didn’t do anything”.
The protocol maintains that Glossip will be moved to a special cell as he awaits execution at the Oklahoma state penitentiary. He is allowed to have a pen and paper, religious items, a book or magazine, and toiletries including soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush and a comb.
The court said it granted the temporary stay “due to Glossip’s last-minute filing and in order for this court to give fair consideration” to his claims. The court rescheduled his execution for 30 September.
Glossip’s is the second execution carried out in the state’s new $100,000 death chamber, which was redesigned last October after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. A review of Lockett’s death determined that bad lighting, poor training and miscommunication contributed to the 43-minute execution process.
Oklahoma department of corrections director Robert Patton briefly addressed media gathered at the prison for the execution. He said he was informed by his general counsel of the delay and that prison officials were “shutting down” the execution procedures.
The first carried out in the new chamber was Charles Warner in January. A week after Warner’s death, the US supreme court granted an appeal brought by him, Glossip and two other death row inmates over the state’s three-drug execution cocktail.
Patton said prison officials also notified Glossip’s family that the execution had been stayed.
Glossip, 52, was the lead plaintiff in a case before the nation’s high court that argued the sedative midazolam violated the US constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment because it didn’t adequately render an inmate unconscious before the second and third drugs were administered. The justices upheld the formula in a 5-4 opinion issued in June.
During his trials, prosecutors alleged that Glossip masterminded the killing because he was afraid Van Treese was about to fire him for embezzling money and poorly managing the motel. Sneed, a handyman at the motel who admitted killing Van Treese with a baseball bat, was sentenced to life in prison in exchange for his testimony against Glossip.
Watkins said Glossip received a special last meal on Tuesday, but that he’ll have his normal breakfast and lunch Wednesday. Watkins says Glossip’s last meal was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and a dinner roll from Chili’s; two orders of fish and chips from Long John Silver’s; and a strawberry malt and Baconator cheeseburger from Wendy’s.
Two juries convicted Glossip and sentenced him to death. His execution was set to be the first in Oklahoma since a sharply divided US supreme court upheld the state’s three-drug lethal injection formula in June.
Last-minute appeal
Glossip’s case garnered international attention after Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, who played a nun in the movie Dead Man Walking, took up his cause. The woman Sarandon portrayed in the movie, anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, has served as Glossip’s spiritual adviser and frequently visited him in prison.
He was convicted of ordering the 1997 beating death of Barry Van Treese, who owned the motel where Glossip worked.
On Tuesday, Glossip maintained his innocence during a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press. He said he hoped his life would be spared, and that he remained optimistic.
His attorneys asked the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals late Tuesday to stop his lethal injection, saying they uncovered new details in the case, including a signed affidavit from an inmate who served time with Justin Sneed, who also was convicted of the killing and is serving a life sentence.
“We’re asking for a stay of execution to give the court more time to review this new evidence, which we think casts grave doubt on Richard’s guilt,” said Mark Henricksen, one of Glossip’s attorneys.
Sneed was the prosecution’s key witness and testified that Glossip masterminded the killing because he was afraid Van Treese was about to fire him for embezzling money and poorly managing the motel. Sneed was sentenced to life in prison in exchange for his testimony.
A fellow inmate, Michael Scott, said in an affidavit that he heard Sneed say “he set Richard Glossip up, and that Richard Glossip didn’t do anything”.
Glossip maintained his innocence Tuesday in a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press and said he remains optimistic his lethal injection will be halted.
“They’ll never take that from me,” Glossip said. “I’ll hope for the best. I won’t let it bring me down.
“If you’ve got to go out ... you don’t want to be bitter and angry about it.”
Glossip’s case has drawn attention from death penalty opponents, and his family and supporters rallied Tuesday at the Oklahoma capitol. They want Republican governor Mary Fallin to issue a 60-day stay to give Glossip’s attorneys more time to investigate new leads.
Today I will be in Oklahoma’s death house with #RichardGlossip. It was back in January that Richard asked me to be there if he was executed.
But the governor said in a statement Wednesday that she remains convinced of Glossip’s guilt, and “after carefully reviewing the facts of this case multiple times” has no plans to issue a stay.
Among his supporters is Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, who played a nun in the movie Dead Man Walking. The woman Sarandon portrayed, anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, serves as Glossip’s spiritual adviser and plans to attend his execution Wednesday.
