Richard Glossip, a death row prisoner in Oklahoma who has insisted he is innocent since he was convicted of murder 25 years ago, has been denied clemency even though the state’s Republican attorney general made an unprecedented appeal to spare his life.
The pardon and parole board voted by 2-2 on Wednesday to deny Glossip, 60, clemency in the face of exceptional resistance from Republican politicians in Oklahoma who have joined forces to try and stop his execution going ahead. As things now stand, only the Republican governor Kevin Stitt stands between Glossip and the death chamber, with lethal injection set for 18 May.
Wednesday’s clemency hearing brought the unique spectacle of an Oklahoma attorney general appearing before the four-person panel to argue for an execution to be called off. Gentner Drummond acknowledged the surreal nature of the moment when he said: “I’m not aware of any time in our history that an attorney general has appeared before this board and argued for clemency.”
He added: “We are here to see that justice is done. We may have different opinions on what justice looks like in this case, but in the end that’s what we must do.”
In recent days, Drummond has taken an increasingly strong stance in calling for the execution process to be halted. He appointed an independent review of the case which threw up multiple instances of prosecutorial errors, and on the basis of that the attorney general has argued that it would be a “grave injustice” for the lethal injection to go ahead.
Drummond requested a stay of execution, but last week the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals gave the green light for it to proceed.
Earlier, the panel heard from the Republican state lawmaker Kevin McDugle. He has led a group of 62 fellow legislators including 45 Republicans – all of them staunch defenders of the death penalty – in backing the call for a new hearing in Glossip’s case.
McDugle made an impassioned speech in which he warned that an innocent man was facing execution. “I believe [Glossip] is innocent of the charge of murder. I believe there are too many mistakes in this case and it does not meet the high bar required to be put to death.”
Glossip has already come within hours of being put to death three times since he was convicted of the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a Best Budget motel in Oklahoma City where Glossip worked as manager. The prisoner has never been accused of actually killing Van Treese.
Instead, a maintenance worker at the motel, Justin Sneed, confessed to police that he beat Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. Sneed, who had a drug habit at the time, later turned state’s witness and pointed the finger at Glossip whom he testified had ordered the murder.
No other forensic or corroborating evidence was presented at trial against Glossip. He was sent to death row while the self-confessed killer, Sneed, was given life without parole.
At Wednesday’s clemency hearing, evidence was presented from a 343-page report on the case prepared by the global law firm Reed Smith which was commissioned by Republican lawmakers concerned about a miscarriage of justice. The independent investigators uncovered a raft of disturbing inconsistencies, including letters from Sneed in which he appeared to regret or even recant his testimony, and evidence that testimony of witnesses had been tainted.
The report concluded that “no reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Richard Glossip of first-degree murder”.
Glossip himself addressed the parole board. “I’m not a murderer, and I don’t deserve to die for this,” he said.
After the panel returned its decision, Glossip’s lawyer Don Knight called on Oklahoma’s governor to grant a reprieve. “The execution of an innocent man would be an irreversible injustice,” he said.
