Oklahoma inmate supported by ‘Dead Man Walking’ author, nun

OKLAHOMA CITY – Distinguished dying penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean, whose ebook “Useless Man Strolling” was became a film, on Wednesday joined others calling on Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to grant dying row inmate Richard Glossip a 60-day reprieve from his scheduled execution.

Prejean joined Republican Reps. Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey and others in asking Stitt for a 60-day delay much like the one he granted Glossip in November to provide the state Courtroom of Legal Appeals time to rule on claims of innocence and prosecutorial misconduct that have been ultimately denied.

“The individuals of Oklahoma must be the one to get to Gov. Stitt, who has that energy to grant a reprieve,” Prejean, a religious advisor to Glossip mentioned throughout a information convention on the state Capital.

Spokespeople in Stitt’s workplace didn’t instantly return cellphone calls and messages asking for remark.

McDugle, who says he helps the dying penalty, referred to as for Stitt to delay the execution whereas two appeals by Glossip are pending earlier than the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.

“Permitting this case to play out in federal courts could be following the regulation. Following the regulation means not speeding the execution course of,” McDugle mentioned.

The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 2-2 final week to reject a clemency suggestion for Glossip with one member recusing himself as a result of his partner is a prosecutor who was beforehand concerned in Glossip’s case, regardless of state Lawyer Basic Gentner Drummond supporting clemency.

Stitt can’t grant clemency with no suggestion from the parole board, however can grant a delay.

Glossip’s lawyer, Don Knight, objected at first of the listening to to continuing with no substitute for the recused board member.

On Tuesday, Knight amended a lawsuit difficult the Pardon and Parole Board assembly with 4 members current, as a substitute of the total five-member board.

The amended lawsuit, filed in Oklahoma County District Courtroom, asks for a keep of execution till Glossip has a clemency listening to earlier than a full board and that the parole board’s vote denying clemency be declared null and void.

“The State of Oklahoma has already agreed that Richard Glossip was denied a good trial … he has now been denied a good clemency listening to,” Knight mentioned in an announcement. “The Board’s cut up resolution is exactly the result this lawsuit sought to keep away from, and it underscores the grave injustice of permitting (Glossip’s) execution to proceed with no correct clemency listening to earlier than a totally constituted Board.”

Drummond on Monday filed a request that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom keep the execution after taking the bizarre step of supporting the clemency request.

“Absent this Courtroom’s intervention, an execution will transfer ahead underneath circumstances the place the Lawyer Basic has already confessed error—a end result that will be unthinkable,” in keeping with the keep request.

Through the clemency listening to, Drummond mentioned he believes Glossip is responsible, a minimum of, of accessary after the very fact, however has quite a few issues in regards to the equity of the trial, together with that Justin Sneed, the important thing witness in opposition to Glossip, lied to the jury about his psychiatric remedy and causes for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium.

Glossip, now 60, was convicted of the 1997 murder-for-hire killing of his boss, motel proprietor Barry Van Treese, at two separate trials primarily based largely on the testimony of Sneed, a co-defendant within the case. Sneed admitted robbing and killing Van Treese, however claims he solely did so after Glossip agreed to pay him $10,000. Sneed acquired a sentence of life in jail.

Glossip has been scheduled to be executed thrice, solely to be spared shortly earlier than the sentence was set to be carried out. He was solely hours from being executed in September 2015 when jail officers realized they’d acquired the unsuitable deadly drug, a mix-up that helped immediate a virtually seven-year moratorium on the dying penalty in Oklahoma.

Glossip’s case attracted worldwide consideration after actress Susan Sarandon — who received an Academy Award for her portrayal of Prejean’s combat to save lots of a person on Louisiana’s dying row within the 1995 film primarily based on Prejean’s ebook — took up his trigger in actual life. His case additionally was featured in a 2017 documentary movie titled “Killing Richard Glossip.”