Oklahoma
Oklahoma Governor Delays Richard Glossip’s Execution to Allow Litigation of Innocence Claims
Oklahoma Governor J. Kevin Stitt has issued a 60-day keep of execution to death-row prisoner Richard Glossip. The order, issued August 16, 2022, delays Glossip’s September 22 execution to supply the Oklahoma Court docket of Legal Appeals time to evaluate a pending movement by Glossip looking for an evidentiary listening to on new proof that he’s harmless of the 1997 homicide of Barry Van Treese, his boss at an Oklahoma Metropolis motel. Glossip filed that movement within the wake of an impartial investigation that uncovered extra proof of Glossip’s innocence and vital authorities misconduct.
Stitt rescheduled Glossip’s execution for December 8, 2022.
Glossip has lengthy maintained that he had no involvement in Van Treese’s homicide. No bodily proof linked him to the homicide, and the prosecution’s case rested on the self-serving testimony of his co-defendant, Justin Sneed. Sneed confessed to killing Van Treese however, after quite a few inconsistent statements, claimed that Glossip had employed him to take action. In alternate for his testimony, Sneed averted the dying penalty.
Glossip filed a clemency petition on August 19 during which he pointed to new proof of innocence throughout an impartial investigation commissioned by the Oklahoma legislature. The 343-page impartial report, ready by the legislation agency Reed Smith LLP and launched in June 2022, revealed that the district legal professional’s workplace had instructed police to destroy a field of proof earlier than Glossip’s second trial and that essential surveillance video data had additionally disappeared. The report sharply criticized legislation enforcement’s “sloppy and truncated” investigation into the case and suggestive questioning of Sneed by police that relied closely on main questions on Glossip. The clemency petition additionally cited a supplemental report centered on the current discovery of a 2007 letter from Sneed to his legal professional that raised questions as to the truthfulness of his testimony in Glossip’s trial.
Glossip’s attorneys praised the governor’s resolution to remain the execution, with legal professional Don Knight noting that the keep occurred “sufficiently upfront of the August 23 clemency listening to to spare everybody the trauma that such a listening to entails.” The Oklahoma legislators who commissioned the impartial investigation additionally noticed the choice as an vital step in direction of a full examination of the case. State Consultant Kevin McDugle stated, “The governor is all about discovering the reality, and if the reality is there’s not sufficient proof to convict, then I feel he’ll stand with that.”
Oklahoma Lawyer Basic John O’Connor stated that his workplace revered the governor’s resolution and that attorneys for the state “trust within the Oklahoma Court docket of Legal Appeals to sift by means of Glossip’s current filings and render a sound resolution. Our hearts exit to the household of the sufferer, Barry Van Treese, who was overwhelmed to dying with a baseball bat in January of 1997.”
The keep marks the fourth time Glossip’s execution has been postponed. Glossip was final set to be executed in 2015. Then-Governor Mary Fallin halted the execution shortly earlier than it was set to start after state officers knowledgeable the governor that they’d procured the unsuitable drug, a drug that had already been used to execute Charles Warner earlier that 12 months. The state’s drug mix-up led to a grand jury investigation and a damning report on the state’s failures to observe its deadly injection protocol. The state suspended executions for greater than 5 years after its failed try and execute Glossip.
The governor’s order stays Glossip’s September 22nd
scheduled execution for 60 days and units a brand new date for shortly after the keep expires. Which means that Glossip’s execution has been delayed till at the least December 8th. Court docket motion earlier than that point might additional delay or name off the execution solely.