The Governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin, who has the power to grant a 60-day stay of execution, has said on numerous occasions the State is upholding the wishes of 24 jurors and the verdict of two trials.
“In the event that a court refuses to issue a stay, Richard Glossip will be executed tomorrow”.
Governor Fallin rejected the application, arguing that a dossier of evidence brought to her office by Glossip’s legal team reveals no “credible evidence of Richard Glossip’s innocence”.
Fallin issued a statement saying “The state of Oklahoma is prepared to hold him accountable for his crimes and move forward with his scheduled execution”.
Glossip was convicted based on the testimony of Sneed, who pleaded guilty and was able to negotiate a life sentence, claiming his co-worker had masterminded the plot.
He was convicted of murdering his boss, despite another man admitting to carrying out the killing and testifying that Glossip had asked him to do it.
Richard Glossip, who has been on death row for 18 years, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 3 p.m. Connecticut in Oklahoma despite pleas for a last-minute reprieve from Prejean, football coach Barry Switzer and actress Susan Sarandon, who played the nun in the 1995 Oscar-winning film. Glossip is maintaining his innocence on the eve of his execution in Oklahoma, saying he hasn’t given up hope that his lethal injection will be halted.
She said that while Glossip still had hope he might be spared, “he feels that even if he is killed, he has shown how broken this whole system of death is”. Sneed has offered eight versions of his story over the course of the two trials in which he was convicted, according to Glossip’s legal team.
Ericka Glossip-Hodge, left, daughter of Richard Glossip, and Billie Jo Ogden Boyiddle, right, Richard Glossip’s sister, listen during a rally to stop the execution of Richard Glossip, in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, September 15, 2015.
Glossip’s lawyers say the court needs time to hear new evidence before the execution.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, whose office prosecuted Glossip before Prater was elected, said he’s reviewed boxes of evidence and is convinced of Glossip’s guilt.
Supporters say the case against the death row inmate is riddled with holes and an illogical motive, that interview footage shows officers appearing to encourage Sneed to implicate Glossip while there was not a shred of physical evidence against him. Their father, Richard Glossip, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, September 16, 2015.
In 1997, Barry Van Treese, owner of the Best Budget Inn, was bludgeoned to death by Sneed. According to Glossip’s new attorney, Don Knight, a convicted murderer from Arkansas was also staying at the hotel where Van Treese was murdered during the crime.
Oklahoma executes more people per head of population than any other USA state.