Destiny of Oklahoma demise row inmate rests with parole board
OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma demise row inmate whose scheduled execution in Could is opposed by the state’s prime prosecutor in addition to celebrities equivalent to Kim Kardashian was set to ask the state’s parole board Wednesday to spare his life.
Richard Glossip has lengthy maintained his innocence within the 1997 killing of his former boss, motel proprietor Barry Van Treese. The state’s Pardon and Parole Board will weigh whether or not to suggest clemency to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who can both commute Glossip’s sentence or permit the Could 18 execution to proceed.
In an uncommon transfer, Oklahoma’s Republican lawyer common, Gentner Drummond, mentioned he would ask the board to spare Glossip as a substitute of asking that execution be allowed to proceed, which is what his workplace often does in such circumstances. He mentioned he would not argue that Glossip is harmless, however that Glossip deserves a brand new trial in gentle of quite a few considerations about how his case was dealt with a long time in the past.
“I’m not conscious of an Oklahoma Lawyer Common ever supporting a clemency software for a demise row inmate,” Drummond wrote in a letter to the parole board. However, he added, it’s “merely not the case” the state has confidence in Glossip’s conviction.
Forward of the listening to, Kardashian urged her thousands and thousands of social media followers to contact the parole board and Stitt in a bid to cease the execution. Two years in the past, she threw her help behind one other Oklahoma demise row inmate Julius Jones, whom Stitt spared simply hours earlier than his scheduled execution.
The parole board, which is comprised of 5 appointees — two former prosecutors, a former police officer, a former choose and a courtroom administrator — sometimes decides whether or not to suggest clemency after listening to arguments from prosecutors, protection attorneys, the sufferer’s household and the condemned inmate. One board member recused himself from the Glossip choice as a result of his partner, a prosecutor, was beforehand concerned in Glossip’s case.
Glossip additionally has a petition pending with the U.S. Supreme Courtroom searching for to cease his execution.
Final week, an Oklahoma appeals courtroom upheld Glossip’s conviction regardless of Drummond’s considerations about some testimony and proof.
Drummond mentioned in a courtroom submitting that though the state is not suggesting that Glossip is harmless, he had quite a few considerations concerning the case, equivalent to trial proof that was destroyed whereas his attraction was pending and the state’s failure to reveal doubtlessly exculpatory proof, together with that the important thing witness towards Glossip lied to the jury about his psychiatric therapy and causes for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium. However the courtroom rejected that request final month, paving the best way for Glossip’s Could execution.
Two unbiased investigations — one by a Houston legislation agency and one other requested by Drummond — have concluded that primarily based on the entire proof accessible at this time, it will be unlikely a jury would vote to convict him.
Glossip was convicted and sentenced to demise at two separate trials after his first conviction was tossed for ineffective counsel. The important thing witness towards Glossip at each trials was Justin Sneed, a handyman on the motel who admitted robbing and killing Van Treese however claimed he did so solely after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. In trade for his testimony, Sneed obtained life in jail. He has denied a number of Related Press interview requests.
Glossip’s attorneys declare that police suspected Glossip due to some inconsistent statements he made in the course of the seek for Van Treese, and that whereas interviewing Sneed, he by no means talked about Glossip till after detectives introduced up his title six instances and emphasised that Glossip was “snitching on him.” The attorneys counsel of their clemency software that Van Treese’s killing was not a homicide for rent, however a botched theft for drug cash dedicated by Sneed and his girlfriend.
“Richard Glossip is an harmless man who has been the sufferer of an enormous breakdown within the justice system that might have been disturbing had it occurred even in a minor case,” they wrote.
Glossip’s case attracted worldwide consideration after actress Susan Sarandon — who gained an Academy Award for her portrayal of demise penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean’s struggle to save lots of a person on Louisiana’s demise row within the 1995 film “Useless Man Strolling” — took up his trigger in actual life. Prejean herself has served as Glossip’s non secular adviser and regularly visited him in jail. His case additionally was featured in a 2017 documentary movie titled “Killing Richard Glossip.”
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Observe Sean Murphy on Twitter: @apseanmurphy