Oklahoma Gov Kevin Stitt granted another temporary reprieve to Richard Glossip on Thursday, a man who has been on death row since he was convicted of hiring a man to murder his boss in 1997.
Mr Glossip’s execution was supposed to take place in the coming weeks, but Mr Stitt’s reprieve will allow an appeals court more time to consider his case. It has been pushed back to February of next year, according to the Associated Press.
Mr Glossip was convicted 25 years ago of hiring a motel maintenance man named Justin Sneed to kill his boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in Oklahoma City. Sneed was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, and served as a key witness in the case against Mr Glossip.
Attorney General John O’Connor said Thursday in a statement to the AP that he respects Mr Stitt’s decision, but still believes that Mr Glossip is guilty.
“After 25 years, justice is still on hold for Barry Van Treese and his family,” O’Connor said. “Mr. Van Treese was in a room of the motel he owned when he was brutally murdered with a baseball bat by Justin Sneed, an individual Richard Glossip hired to work at the motel and later enlisted to commit the murder. Two different juries found Glossip guilty of murder for hire.”
Other people aren’t so sure. An independent investigation into the case by the Houston law firm Reed Smith suggested that the state lost or destroyed evidence that could have proven Mr Glossip’s innocence and that a police officer may have coerced Mr Sneed into offering testimony against Mr Glossip.
Mr Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said in a statement that the facts uncovered by the independent investigation strengthen his client’s longstanding claim of innocence. There was never any physical evidence connecting Mr Glossip to the killing, nor was he linked to it by any witness except Sneed. In 2015, one of Sneed’s fellow inmates signed an affadavit claiming that Sneed said “he set Richard Glossip up, and that Richard Glossip didn’t do anything.”
“There is now overwhelming support for what Reed Smith has concluded after its thorough investigation — that no reasonable juror who heard all the evidence would find him guilty,” Mr Knight said.
A bipartisan group of Oklahoma lawmakers seem to agree. A group of 62 legislators, led by Republican state Rep Kevin McDugle, have asked that Mr Glossip be granted a new evidentiary hearing. Mr Glossip had a clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board scheduled for next week, but that will also now be delayed.
This is not the first time that Mr Glossip’s execution has been stayed at the eleventh hour. In 2015, Mr Glossip was supposed to be killed with a lethal injection when, hours before the exeuction was scheduled to happen, the state realised that it was about to use the wrong lethal drug.
Mr Stitt, who granted the appeal, is locked in what appears to be an unexpectedly competitive fight for re-election against Democratic opponent Joy Hofmeister. Mr Stitt also granted Mr Glossip a stay in August.
