Updated August 11, 6:11 a.m.
Gov. Mary Fallin plans to move forward with the execution of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip despite calls for a stay of execution from death penalty opponents.
The governor said Monday two juries convicted Richard Glossip of murder and sentenced him to death, and that decision was reviewed and upheld by several courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Richard Glossip was first convicted of murder and sentenced to death over 17 years ago,” Fallin said in a statement. “He has had over 6,000 days to present new evidence. Postponing his execution an additional sixty days does nothing but delay justice for the family of [Barry] Van Treese.”
Van Treese owned a motel in Oklahoma City, and was killed during a supposed murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by Glossip. But Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty chair Connie Johnson, who’s also a Democratic state Senator, says the hotel's maintenance worker Justin Sneed bargained with police and lied about Glossip in order to avoid the death penalty. He's serving a life sentence.
"I am shocked and disappointed that the governor of Oklahoma is unwilling to even consider that we may have Richard Glossip's execution wrong,” Johnson said in a statement. “It is disheartening that neither she nor the Pardon & Parole Board is willing to be educated specifically about what's wrong with Gov. Mary Fallin's seemingly boastful statement proclaiming that 'Richard Glossip was sentenced to death by two juries and should therefore be held accountable and executed for his crimes' dismisses recent reports about the 150 exonerations in cases where a jury determined guilt.”
Updated August 10, 10:42 a.m.
Actress Susan Sarandon and death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean used social media Monday morning to respond to several points made by Gov. Mary Fallin's office regarding the pending execution of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip.
Last Thursday Fallin's spokesman Alex Weintz outlined Fallin's stance in a series of 11 tweets. He said the governor has no plans to grant Glossip a stay of execution, and the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board already denied a clemency request.
P&P Board is made up of former police officers & prosecutors. OK lawyers call it “stacked” and “prosecution heavy.” https://t.co/YuCquVanpa
— Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) August 10, 2015
Weintz said 24 jurors unanimously found Glossip guilty in the course of two trials, and his appeal was denied by courts at the district and appelate level. Prejean responded by saying more than 150 convicted individuals have been exonerated from death row after information came to light proving their innocence.
The jury system doesn't guarantee a correct verdict - especially with ineffective lawyers involved. Errors are made. https://t.co/eamYclqCNw
— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) August 10, 2015
Sarandon said Fallin should grant a reprieve so Glossip can present evidence that could lead to his exoneration.
"Executing an innocent man can never be reversed," Sarandon said.
Updated August 7, 6:22 a.m.
Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip says he's grateful for the support of actress Susan Sarandon as he awaits his September 16 lethal injection.
It's the first execution scheduled after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oklahoma's three-drug protocol challenged by Glossip and more than a dozen fellow inmates.
After hearing the Academy Award-winning actress spoke out on his behalf, Glossip phoned Sky News from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester:
"It's really crazy that it's gotten to this point. She can see for herself that this is truly a case of an innocent man who is going to be executed. "And I couldn’t ask for a better person to stand up and speak out for me, and I'm glad that she has and I hope that she'll continue to do so. "For some reason Governor (Mary) Fallin is not looking at it the way that she should be looking at it. "She should be looking at the fact that an innocent man is about to be executed and she should be doing everything in her power to stop that from happening."
Fallin's spokesman clarified the governor's role in granting clemency to Glossip Thursday.
Alex Weintz said Fallin can only grant a 60-day stay of execution, since the five-member Pardon and Parole Board unanimously denied Glossip's request for clemency.
Weintz said if Glossip's attorneys have any evidence that would clear their client, they can present it to a state or federal court and stop the execution.
Glossip lost appeals in the federal court's Western District of Oklahoma, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court after being convicted in two trials and sentenced to die by two separate juries.
Updated 6:55 p.m.
Gov. Mary Fallin's spokesman clarified the governor's role in granting clemency to Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip Thursday, prompted by an interview with actress Susan Sarandon where the Academy Award-winner expressed her disgust with the state's criminal justice system.
In a series of 11 Tweets, Fallin's spokesman Alex Weintz outlined what the governor can and cannot do leading up to the September 16 execution of Glossip, the state's first since a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld the use of the controversial sedative Midazolam as part of Oklahoma's three-drug lethal injection cocktail. Glossip and nearly two dozen other death row inmates sued, arguing the risk for pain violated the constitution's Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment.
1. The gov does not have the ability to grant clemency to Glossip. The limit of her legal ability to intervene is to grant a 60 day stay
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
2. The gov can only grant clemency 2 inmates who have been recommended clemency by the Pardon and Parole board
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
3. Glossip's request was unanimously denied by the 5 person P and P board
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
4. But doesn't the gov control the P and P board? No, the board is an independent entity on which the gov has 3 appointees
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
5. To say Glossip has had his day in court is an understatement. He has been pursuing the same arguments publicly and in court for 20 years
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
He was convicted of murder in court twice and sentenced to death twice by two juries (24 total jurors unanimous in their verdict)
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
7. He then lost appeals in the Western District Court, 10th Circuit Court, and the US Supreme Court. And then turned down by P and P board
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
8. For the gov to grant Glossip clemency would be to unilaterally overturn the judgments of dozens of jurors and multiple courts
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
9. if Glossip's attys did have any legitimately exculpatory evidence they could present that 2state or federal court and stop the execution
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
10. bottom line: Glossip's execution is going forward because he is a) guilty and b) has exhausted his legal options
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
final thought: there are multiple victims here, none of them Glossip. A man beaten to death, wife without a husband, five kids with no dad
— Alex Weintz (@AlexWeintz) August 6, 2015
The Oklahoman's Graham Lee Brewer analyzed Weintz's tweets, and has spoken repeatedly with murdered Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese's widow and family.
Original Post
Actress Susan Sarandon has weighed in on the pending execution of an Oklahoma death row inmate who sued to stop his lethal injection.
Richard Glossip joined nearly two dozen other Oklahoma death row inmates in arguing the state's protocol constitutes cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the U.S. constitution.
“Just from the record of how many people have been exonerated in Oklahoma, you would think that they would stop doing it, because there have been so many people that have been proven to be innocent. There have been 20,” Sarandon said in an interview with Sky News. “In other countries, that was a good enough reason to abolish the death penalty, but in America it doesn’t seem to be.”
Sarandon is an outspoken activist, and won an Academy Award in 1995 for her portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean in the film Dead Man Walking. Prejean has served as a spiritual advisor to Richard Glossip as he awaits his September 16 execution.
-Tv55Rts
Sarandon said Glossip's case is typical - with two trials, poor legal representation, and no physical evidence linking him to the murder of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese:
[Glossip] was convicted of murder after the man who confessed to the killing claimed that Glossip had hired him to do it. In return for his testimony, Justin Sneed was given a prison sentence, whereas Glossip was sentenced to death. He has been on death row for 17 years but has exhausted all appeals, including to the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . "He's put there by a snitch who actually did kill the person, and then the snitch has life and this guy is being put to death on the 16th.” "Once a mistake has been made within a judicial system, people just do not want to admit that mistake has been made and it becomes impossible to readdress them.”
The Hollywood actress and outspoken activist also sharply criticized Gov. Mary Fallin, calling her a “horrible person” for not halting the execution of Glossip despite questions about his conviction for orchestrating Van Treese’s murder.
"It’s never because of some consciousness-raising that these things change, it’s because of some kind of embarrassment,” Sarandon said. “So this is where public opinion can make a difference. This is where having letters sent to the governor can make a difference.”
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