SCOTUS holds Richard Glossip's execution

[Chris-]

Supreme Court blocks Richard Glossip’s execution in Oklahoma | AP News

APNEWS.COM

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The Supreme Court has blocked Oklahoma from executing death row inmate Richard Glossip after the state’s attorney general agreed Glossip’s life should be spared.

 

I had never read about this guy until now. From his wikipedia page:

 

Spoiler

On July 1, 2022, Glossip was one of twenty-five death row inmates to be scheduled for execution in Oklahoma. He was scheduled to be executed on September 22, 2022.[47]

 

On August 16, 2022, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt granted a 60-day stay of execution. Glossip was then scheduled to be executed on December 8, 2022.[48][49] On November 3, 2022, Governor Stitt again granted a stay of execution for Glossip, allowing time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address his pending legal proceedings. He was rescheduled to be executed on February 16, 2023.[50] On January 24, 2023, Glossip's execution was rescheduled to May 18, 2023, after Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested a new execution timetable to accommodate for staff shortages within the Department of Corrections.[51] In March, Drummond announced his office would seek to stay the execution until 2024 to allow an independent counsel to review the case.[52] After the independent review was released, his office filed a motion to vacate the murder conviction of Mr. Glossip in April 2023.[53] Drummond did not "proclaim Glossip’s innocence, but he did note in a news release there was enough doubt of his guilt that the death penalty and his conviction for murder is inappropriate."[54] The case goes back to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.[55]

 

On April 20, 2023, The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled against Richard Glossip despite a motion from the state’s Attorney General asking the court to vacate Glossip’s conviction and remand the case to a lower court. This ruling meant that barring clemency being granted or any further appeals to the US Supreme Court, Glossip would be executed by lethal injection on May 18.[56]

 

Also in late April 2023 a Clemency Hearing held by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied Glossip clemency in a 2 - 2 ruling. The reason why a tied vote resulted in denial of clemency in favour of death is due to the rules stating that there must be a 3 - 2 majority ruling in favour of clemency (There were only 4 panel members instead of 5 as member Richard Smothermon recused himself due to a conflict of interest - that being the husband of Glossip's trial prosecutor Connie Smothermon)

 

In May 2023 Glossip's attorneys filed a Petition For Stay of Execution to the US Supreme Court citing new evidence that has come to light which sheds doubt on the reliability of the state's star witness Justin Sneed, the man who was convicted of actually carrying out the murder of Barry Van Treese. Subsequent to this filing, Oklahoma has filed an Unopposed Response to the Petition.[57] On May 5, the Supreme Court halted Glossip's execution.[58][59]

 

Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has indicated that he has taken an oath to follow the law and therefore will not intervene in stopping Glossip's execution unless the courts step in to act based on either new evidence or procedural error.[60]

 

Republicans get so turned on by the death sentence that they can't process how to handle a clearly innocent white man.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Oh, wow. This is good news. 

[Guest]

I have no idea whether the man is innocent or not, but the evidence presented from all I’ve seen over the years was not sufficient in my view to convict.