Just a few hours before he was scheduled to be put to death, inmate Richard Eugene Glossip received an emergency stay of execution from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
Glossip is the first Oklahoma death row inmate scheduled for execution since the United States Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol as constitutional in a case that could have dramatically shaped the future of the death penalty in America.
However, his case drew public attention after celebrities including Susan Sarandon and Sister Helen Prejean, whom Sarandon portrayed in the film Dead Man Walking, took up his cause. Many people argued that, despite a history of denied appeals and affirmed conviction, Glossip is innocent of the murder for which he was sentenced.
Glossip was convicted of first degree murder in the 1997 death of his boss, hotel owner Barry Alan Van Treese. The man who actually committed the murder, Justin Sneed, is sentenced to life in prison without parole, while Glossip is sentenced to death. Sneed testified that he did, in fact, bludgeon Van Treese, but that he did so at the behest of Glossip.
Glossip and his attorneys maintain that he is innocent. They have long argued that Sneed's testimony is unreliable, and that he accused Glossip in order to escape the death penalty himself.
Although several concerned citizens petitioned Governor Mary Fallin to intervene and issue a stay of execution, she has repeatedly declined to do so, saying that Glossip has had his day in court, and it is up to the courts--not her--to determine whether or not Glossip is executed for the crime.
Now, at the eleventh hour, Glossip has received a short reprieve. In reviewing evidence presented by Glossip's defense, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a two-week emergency stay. Among the evidence defense attorneys plan to present in arguing for a new trial or a vacated death sentence is witness testimony that challenges Sneed's credibility.
According to Glossip's defense, an inmate housed close to Sneed at the Joseph Harp Correctional Center in Lexington reported that he overheard Sneed bragging that he had framed Glossip for the Van Treese murder. Another witness stated that he knew both Sneed and Glossip. He called Sneed a "thief and a methamphetamine addict" and said that Sneed was in no way under Glossip's control.
If Glossip's defense is not successful in obtaining a new trial or a lesser sentence, the man will be executed on September 30.
