Oklahoma’s state parole board on Wednesday denied a clemency request from Richard Glossip, a death row inmate who’s maintained his innocence for decades in the 1997 murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese.
The 2-to-2 vote leaves the final decision on the execution in the hands of Oklahoma’s Republican governor Kevin Stitt, or the Supreme Court, where Glossip has filed an appeal.
Oklahoma attorney general Gentner Drummond, as well as a majority of fellow Republicans in the state legislature, oppose the execution and have advocated that Glossip get a new trial.
The attorney general has said previously said, “I have concluded that I cannot stand behind the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip.”
Lawyers for Glossip criticised the parole board’s vote.
“It was a devastating ruling by the court. I think, you know, when the attorney general of the state of Oklahoma says that he thinks that this witness makes material misstatements, that’s now undisputed,” Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, told KOCO.
The execution, which has been delayed numerous times over the last decade, is scheduled for 18 May.
Last week, an Oklahoma appeals court rejected a request from Glossip for a new trial.
“This case has been thoroughly investigated and reviewed in numerous appeals,” the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals wrote in its ruling on Thursday.
“His new application provides no additional information which would cause this Court to vacate his conviction or sentence.”
Critics argue that the evidence that Glossip orchestrated a murder-for-hire scheme against Van Treese is shaky at best.
Police’s sole point of evidence is the testimony of Justin Sneed, a then-19-year-old with a history of past criminal offences who alleges Glossip paid him to beat Van Treese to death.
Subsequent evidence showed Sneed, who offered conflicting versions of what happened each time he was interviewed, was the subject of a highly coercive police interrogation before ultimately cutting a deal with officials and avoiding a death sentence.
Sneed, who is now serving life in prison, has allegedly confessed to carrying out the murder of his own volition on the inside, according to a signed affidavit from a fellow inmate.
In 2022, law firm Reed Smith reinvestigated the case at the request of state lawmakers. A team of 30 attorneys working through 12,000 documents concluded the case against Glossip was full of holes.
“Our conclusion is that no reasonable juror, hearing the complete record, and the uncovered facts ... would have convicted Richard Glossip of capital murder,” Reed Smith attorney Stan Perry said in June.
Governor Stitt has granted clemency to other high-profile death row residents, such as converting the death sentence of Julius Jones into life in prison in 2021, following a nationwide activist movement.
The Independent and the nonprofit Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ) have launched a joint campaign calling for an end to the death penalty in the US. The RBIJ has attracted more than 150 well-known signatories to their Business Leaders Declaration Against the Death Penalty - with The Independent as the latest on the list. We join high-profile executives like Ariana Huffington, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson as part of this initiative and are making a pledge to highlight the injustices of the death penalty in our coverage.
