IN A DRAMATIC and wholly unexpected move, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin halted the execution of Richard Glossip on Wednesday, citing “last-minute questions” about the lethal injection protocol the state planned to use to kill him. In a brief statement, Fallin — who has previously denied clemency to Glossip — announced her decision to issue a 37-day stay of execution in order to determine if one of the drugs the state intended to use, potassium acetate, is actually “compliant” with the state’s “court-approved execution procedures.”
The stay came just before 4 p.m., almost an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in the case, and as witnesses were waiting to be taken to the death chamber.
The stay was in part so unexpected because Glossip’s appeals on grounds of innocence had been repeatedly rejected. Glossip was condemned to die for the January 1997 murder of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry VanTreese based almost entirely on the word of his confessed killer, a 19-year-old meth addict and drifter named Justin Sneed. Sneed implicated Glossip as the mastermind behind his crime, and testified against him in order to avoid the death penalty. In exchange, he is serving a life sentence in a medium security state prison. (For full background on the case, read The Intercept’s July investigation.)
In the media room on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton told a throng of bewildered reporters that it was actually his office that requested the stay, in order to give the state time to do its “due diligence” and “review” the protocol.
But it was a mystery as to when the prison decided to use potassium acetate in the first place — and why no one in charge appeared to know about the change until the very last minute. Oklahoma has never used the drug in executions, nor is it known to be an appropriate substitute for potassium chloride — the third in Oklahoma’s official three-drug protocol. Indeed, on Wednesday the DOC provided documents to reporters that listed the formula for Glossip’s execution as made up of three drugs: midazolam, which sedates the prisoner, followed by rocuronium bromide (which causes paralysis and stops breathing) and finally potassium chloride (to stop his heart).
Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton gives a statement to reporters at the media center at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015.
Photo: Sue Ogrocki/AP
Although potassium chloride and potassium acetate are part of the same family of drugs, the latter is described as having a variety of applications, including as a food additive, a runway de-icer, and use in mummification. There is no track record for its use in executions, nor is it clear what would constitute a fatal dose. One pharmacologist, David Kroll, estimated in an article for Forbes that, at least in rodents, it would take 20 percent more of the drug to have the fatal effects of potassium chloride.
The last-minute swap raises more questions about Oklahoma’s capacity to competently carry out executions — a concern that has plagued the state since its horribly botched execution of Clayton Lockett in 2014. In that case, Lockett writhed on the gurney for nearly an hour after a paramedic and physician tried clumsily to insert an IV line into his body. He eventually died of a heart attack.
Glossip’s execution was supposed to be the first following the Supreme Court’s June upholding of Oklahoma’s protocol. Since then, the DOC has remodeled its death chamber, reportedly procuring a new execution deathbed and new equipment, including an ultrasound machine, to ensure IV lines are fitted properly. The renovation also happened to diminish the transparency of the process: The state eliminated from its viewing area seven seats previously available for media witnesses, reducing the total number of journalists’ slots from 12 to five, while also removing the clock from the execution chamber. Now corrections officials will provide details on the time it takes the state to kill a prisoner.
THE TURN OF EVENTS on Wednesday was particularly dramatic outside the prison, where more than a dozen members of Glossip’s family had gathered. Some wore T-shirts with his picture on the front and, on the back, “PLEASE HELP ME FREE AN INNOCENT MAN.” Everyone believed the execution was imminent, if not underway. But anguish turned to relief and jubilation once someone saw a tweet from a journalist inside the prison. “Stay! Stay!” the person screamed.
Don Knight and Dale Baich, defense attorneys who have handled different aspects of the case, were themselves unaware of the stay until they heard the cries of celebration. Later, Baich, who was part of the legal team that challenged Oklahoma’s use of midazolam before the Supreme Court earlier this year, released a statement: “Today’s hastily abandoned plans show what happens when states carry out executions in secrecy with unqualified execution team members and no public oversight.”
“I literally thought I was fixin’ to lose my best friend,” said Mark Smith, Glossip’s nephew, who told The Intercept that he has driven from Clayton, Oklahoma, to visit his uncle every weekend for the last two years. Smith said he grew up fishing and having cookouts with Glossip, whom he described as generous and an important influence on him. “That man kept me out of trouble and kept my mind straight,” he said. “He’s not a murderer.”
For Billie Jo Boyiddle, Glossip’s niece, it was the fourth time she had experienced the fear of an execution date. “People are listening now — but the people who need to listen won’t,” she said. She was already in tears when she arrived at the prison, along with her husband and two of her sons, the youngest of whom is 12; an erroneous Facebook post had reported that the Supreme Court had denied a stay, long before it actually did. “It’s just devastating.”
Melissa Johnson, a resident of McAlester, Oklahoma — where executions are carried out — was also outside the prison with her 19-year-old son and his girlfriend. She heard about the case only two weeks ago, after Glossip received his last stay. Knowing that the execution was supposed to take place in her own backyard was “nauseating,” she said. She is not affiliated with any anti-death penalty organizations, she said, “I’m just a Christian.”
Sister Helen Prejean, who has spearheaded the campaign to save Glossip’s life, was elated that the stay had been issued: “A food preservative!” she exclaimed after learning about the state’s drug quandary. “And a Richard preservative.”
The last time a stay was granted, by the Court of Criminal Appeals, Glossip’s family celebrated by going back to Boyiddle’s home, where they released colorful balloons. They arrived at the prison today with balloons in their truck, which they passed around. Following news of the stay, Boyiddle’s husband, Mike Campbell, tearfully led the group in a prayer, thanking God, as well as Gov. Fallin. He also blessed Glossip — “Ricky” — and said, “I know God, Lord, that you answered our prayers and you’re going to continue to hold up this family, you will continue to hold up this case, and will continue to help us fight the death penalty across this world — not just in Oklahoma, but everywhere.”
The family then released their balloons, which floated up above the scarred white brick walls of the prison.
Glossip’s next execution date is Friday, November 6.
Caption: The niece of Richard Glossip, Billie Jo Boyiddle, hugs Mike Campbell after hearing about the stay of execution outside the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, in McAlester, Oklahoma, Sept. 30, 2015.
This has nothing to do with any form of justice all of us can agree on…”The concept of justice is based on numerous fields, and many differing viewpoints and perspectives including the concepts of moral correctness based on law, equity, ethics, rationality, religion, and fairness”. (wikipedia) What we are calling Justice in Glossip’s case is actually the justice of the strong over the weak…and it is simply the definition of the law that the powerful have imposed, by tyranny, on the weak. Yes, Oklahoma is powerful enough to execute Richard Glossip, but his execution will not have anything to really do with justice as compassionate humanity understands it. Without proof, of his guilt, he needs to go free. The case against him is pure heresy! And it is not accepted as true by any but the murdering few!
Michael… You miss the essential reason why the DP must be abolished. It’s not because there exists the certainty that innocent people have been and will be executed. That rationale supposes it would be acceptable to execute those most certain to be considered guilty.
The core problem with the DP arises at the very beginning of the legal process, not at the post-conviction end. There simply is no possibility of creating a system of law that can impartially or fairly or rationally conclude who or what crimes are deserving of death, especially in this huge country of many states divided within and without on many matters, political, social, economic, and not least, legal.
There are instances in which executing someone who is undeniably guilty of murder, such as Ted Bundy, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Barry Obama, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein, and other irredeemable killers, is justified. Their depraved indifference to human life and the mass scale of their killings justifies their execution upon conviction.
The question is not one of morality, but of practicality. There are simply too many flaws in the U.S. legal system in which the guilty are allowed to go unpunished or serve lesser sentences, while the innocent are put to death or sent to rot in prison. In the case of Richard Glossip, whose guilt is very much in doubt, applying the death penalty is simply wrong.
WTF. No intelligent discussion to be had with someone who equates Dahmer with “Barry” Obama and who is fine with executing both. And you accuse others of barbarity? You are no different than any blood thirster who favors killing as justice, you just differ on who qualifies as worthy of death.
Given Obama’s premeditated murder of Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son and other American citizens accused without any evidence of terrorism, and his bombing of innocent civilians even after having officially “ended” wars, he stands just as guilty of mass murder as any serial killer. That the crimes are carried out with drone-dropped bombs and under the cover of state-sanctioned immunity is irrelevant. Similarly, Bush and Cheney are demonstrably guilty of war crimes and mass murder and should face execution for their crimes.
The point is that moral implications regarding the death penalty come second to the system of justice in this country being so flawed as to render the application of the death penalty a crime in and of itself because too many innocent people are being put to death for murders they did not commit. Moral arguments for or against are subjective and tend to be emotionally charged, rendering the debate an exercise in gridlock since both sides are unmoving in their respective positions. The Intercept’s article on Glossip reveals substantial contradictions in testimony from Sneed, as well as damning evidence that Glossip’s previous attorneys failed to present the interrogations of Sneed in which police deliberately guided his statements, essentially coercing him into implicating his supervisor to avoid the threat of death by execution. Sneed had confessed to the murder. He seems only to have named Glossip as the mastermind because he was being led by police and because he wanted to not be sent to the gurney. Take away Sneed’s testimony and the case falls apart. If Glossip is to be put to death based on dubious testimony from a murderer with incentive to lie, then there can be no justice as it condemns the innocent and not the guilty.
Jonathan Bell.. …you rant much and listen little, which might make you feel better, but which makes for completely ineffective advocacy. Oh. You don’t even live in the US. Don’t you have Big Problems to solve where you actually live?
Your over the top yapping doesn’t help here…it just confirms the biases of the very folks whose minds need to be changed about the DP. Nuance, Dr. Bell, nuance. And facts, not knee-jerk generalizations.
Hi Julie,
Your opinions remain your opinion, as do mine. The global outcry over this cruel farce remain. Spoke on this issue today (locally about 8500 miles) with an Australian, an ex-member of the UK Parliament and an American. All highly educated with university education. All agree that this case is highly problematic, a farce and symptomatic of a nodal point in the USA’s treatment of the death penalty. This remains the apotheosis of deceit and wrong doing of State/Federal systems.
We love your concept of ‘nuance.’ Your ilk – who so blithely call the killing of innocent civilians outside your country as ‘collateral damage.’ The figure is about 114000 in Iraq and 26000 in Afghanistan. The latest obscenity in a Doctor’s Without Borders Hospital in Kunduz needs complete impartial investigation. Sorry, but the word of the USA is no longer believed. Why have you been involved involved in wars for 244 out of 260 years of nationhood? Is it bloodlust?
Sometimes wickedness needs to be prominently exposed and the perpetrators shamed. We feel that complicity of falsity, criminality and the deliberate withholding of evidence by officials of the State of Oklahoma in the impending execution of Richard Glossip is just such a case. Rather disingenuous of yourself to believe that anyone outside your ‘fiefdoms’ cannot express an opinion on your deviousness. You who have further destabilized the globe through poorly prosecuted and phony wars. Remember the Global Village?
Is it not meant to be 3 strikes and you’re out? Why a fourth last ‘ last meal?’
This issue is controversial both as a constitutional as well as a policy/justice/rectitude matter.
The problems are generically twofold: 1) the insistence on the death penalty for a situation with such a low standard of doubt, we do feel that Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are light years ahead of where the others should be on this issue, and 2) the widely publicized verdict of the perceived’ guilt’ of Richard Glossip is highly suspecton so many levels.
A number of ‘logical fallacies’ appear to have become a major issues in this suspect case. These include:
1) Massive utilization of the ‘Argument through Force’ tactic. This is in the ongoing ‘Cowboy Bob’ Macy mould. The utilization of compliance for a guilty verdict through use of threats is obvious. From deliberately rounding up those who could counter ‘the official’ version of events, to withholding evidence from juries/the press or public to getting Sneed to implicate Glossip. The latter is not allowed in more ‘civilised’ countries – for obvious (to non- American) reasons.
2) “Argument from Ignorance’ – i.e. that the ‘guilt’ OF MURDER of Glossip is valid because it has not been proven false! Most cool when you control and manipulate what the jury hear/see or do not and Glossip could not get decent legal counsel initially.
3) The (aptly named) ‘Prosecutor’s Fallacy’ = the probability of a random match of fortuitous events being the same as the probability of guilt. It would appear that the motive was inferred to match the prosecutors confabulations. The Veeck Effect.
4) ‘The Slippery Slope Argumentation’ – the idea that if the prosecutors version of events is deviated from (even in the smallest of details), that massive compromise to their pre-judged verdict would happen. Also thas the truth would expose endemic/systematic and systematized criminality/deviousness and folly, in the police/legal ‘Systems’ of Oklahoma.
5) The ‘Ad Hominem Attacks’ for example the ‘Bulls*#t PR Campaign’ itself = ‘bovine excreta’ from the AG’s office.
The fallible ‘system’ might think that they have won the fight? But in the eyes of millions of thinking people around the globe (including the USA), the ‘system’ has lost the war against arbitrary false judgements. Will Glossip be just another example of your quaintly utilized term, ‘collateral damage,’ as you belatedly stagger towards an acceptance of better ‘Justice’ and not the exercise of State/Federal sanctioned vengeance?
Only time will tell?
“Santa Muerte?” Get real. It’s Jesus Malverde by 100 miles. http://www.ebay.com/itm/100pk-JESUS-MALVERDE-FRESH-HAND-DIPPED-INCENSE-STICKS-SCENT-SINALOA-MEXICO-SAINT-/141284706192
Sorry Julie, the thinking, evidence seeking and truth loving world just do not believe the ‘Bulls*#t PR campaign’ of your ilk, in justifying the near (third attempt) of yet another State sanctioned execution, of yet another human, innocent of murder, in your depraved country. You seem to do this regularly with your poor (unlike an OJ Simpson), black or minority people. You have confused opinion with fact. You have confused truth with lies.
The guilt of Richard Glossip as to THE MURDER of Van Treese has NOT been proven ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ Your 3:2 and 5:4 decisions REEK of doubt. Is might always right? Your fascist, corrupt, truth avoiding, confabulating , devious, arbitrary and false systems of law (certainly not Justice) are the ones on trial here. And Julie, I have read the pathetic trial transcripts – in a word, underwhelming. Do you know that legal professors globally are using this farcical trial and the shockingly bad ‘interrogation video’s’ as examples of how justice can be abused/perverted and twisted? This case succinctly illustrates how false conclusions, with profound outcomes can be reached by ‘rogue’ law/State officials. This is just another form of the Veeck effect (ex Gregory Cochran) where standards of ‘evidence’ were adjusted in order to favor/favour a preferred (?Macy instigated) outcome. This troubling case is so full of holes, that were it a fishing net, it would let Blue Whales right through!
I this case, I am with the Pope, Richard Branson, Bono and countless others GLOBALLY with an outcry against those of your ilk. Sorry, we just don’t believe your brainwashed ‘bovine excreta’ of visceral, legalized evil (under the guise of ‘legality’) and State sanctioned depravity.
Why was so much evidence withheld from the juries (subject to the ambiguities of compliance conformity)? Why the obvious cover up as to the shenanigans of the obscene Macy era? Ever investigated the ‘compliance conformity’ of groups/juries? The bigger the group the greater the conformity (both right or wrong). There are members of the duped juries in this case who have said that they would have voted differently had ALL the information been made available to them. Why was it not??? This stinks of corruption!!! Your systems believe the plea-bargaining versions (all 8+ of them) of a violent drug addicted murderer yet will not even consider contrary information – from his OWN daughter, Michael Scott and Tapley. The rounding up of Michael Scott by the ‘gestapo’ was symptomatic of a cover up! Why is this rubbish allowed? Now, Julie, what do these people (Scott et al.) have to gain from this?? Pray tell! The legal ‘Fuhrer’ (AG) in Oklahoma will not even countenance the possibility of his preordained version of events being wrong. And you citizens buy the infallibility of an all powerful, omniscient, omnipotent and all – seeing AG?!
Julie, only about 36 days, then you can eventually put another notch on your bedpost. Just use your punch bag till then.
You gave your fallibility/bias away when you blithely stated ‘the police had ALREADY concluded he (i.e. Glossip) was (involved), especially after he failed a lie detector test ……’ There you have it! The infallibility of the ‘lie detector test’ coupled with the prejudged ‘judge/jury functioning’ of the corrupt (quite frankly criminal) members of the ‘gestapo’ of the State of Oklahoma. Q.E.D.You guys screwed up on the evidence and motive. This was/is a ‘set up.’
You even destroyed the ‘evidence?’ Why??
You and your ilk are no better than the hominids who perpetrated the execution of the innocents in the infamous Salem trials. It is again, your twisted lack of morality/truth avoidance and bias that is patently obvious!
Saudi Arabia is about to behead, crucify then publically display the body of a 21 year old man, one Ali Mohammed al-Nimr. His ‘crime?’ As a 17 year old he protested against State corruption! We are disgusted but not shocked in this case, it is just the ‘same old, same old’ from the friends of some Republican Presidents. However, with the Glossip farce, there is both GLOBAL disgust and surprise.
We expected (probably wrongly) more from the fascist hominids of your ilk. Certain TRUTHS are self evident to the thinking on our planet. One such truth IS the way your legalized quasi-legal mafia/gestapo, have connived, lied and obstructed the cause of justice in this and MANY other cases. It is your SYSTEMS that are globally on trial here! You just don’t see it do you Julie! You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Q.E.D.
Do you believe your false beliefs because of arrogance, ignorance, stupidity or diminished powers of cerebration due to the consequences of inbreeding depression?
Perhaps with age MIGHT come wisdom? Such a pity that Fallin, Prater and Pruitt lack the wisdom of George Ryan, a previous Governor of Illinois. In January 2000 he sagely said, “I cannot support a system which, in its administration, has proven so fraught with error and has come so close to the ultimate nightmare, the State’s taking of innocent life …. UNTIL I can be sure that everyone sentenced to death in Illinois IS truly guilty….” What a wise human! The world has weighed you guys in the balance. You HAVE been found wanting!
The ‘ultimate nightmare’ has been happening again.
Oscar Wilde was partly right when he said that “America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.” It should have stated from barbarism, to decadence and then back to barbarism again. Julie, just remember this, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal,” as presciently stated by Martin Luther King Jr. Just substitute Fallin for Hitler and Oklahoma for Germany. It is just that simple. You are patently out of step with history.
When will you realize that the rate of murder per 100000 of your populations, is HIGHER in States with the death penalty than in those WITHOUT it! Why? Discuss.
Will the innocent (OF MURDER) Glossip now be tortured with a fourth – last ‘last meal?’ You must be SO proud of your sadistic, myopic selves?
The global outcry it NOT simply about the death penalty in this (yet another) false conviction. It IS also the obviously false/wrong conviction, based on State sponsored lies, deception, criminality, deceit and confabulation, that is more heinous. It is righteousness that exalts a nation. That means Julie, doing WHAT is RIGHT! The Glossip case is the apotheosis of EVERYTHING that is wrong/broken with your debased and unprincipled mock trials and systems. With your local arbitrary and sadistic versions of your ‘game of law.’
Injustice remains injustice NO matter how you try and dress it up. You are metaphorically in a moral sense no more than ‘the emperor’ in the story of the ’emperor’s clothes.’ There are NONE so blind………………..
The death penalty must be abolished for one reason and one reason only: With all the instances of convicted persons turning out to be innocent, even one wrongful execution is an act of first degree murder by the state that cannot be tolerated by a society that claims to venerate the ideal of justice for all.
There are serious lingering reasonable doubts as to the supposed guilt of Richard Glossip in the murder of Barry Van Treese. Justin Sneed, the guy who actually, savagely beat Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, had every reason to lie. He was facing the death penalty and needed a scapegoat to save his own backside. His testimony is contradictory and keeps changing every time he gives it. Remove him as a reliable witness and what actually links Glossip to the crime? Nothing. The case falls apart. Are we to believe that the state of Oklahoma is justified in killing Richard Glossip, based on such weak “evidence”?
Any reasonable jury, given the full information available, would say no. Both of the juries that convicted Glossip were prevented from having all the available information, and indeed were given false information. One court overturned the first verdict precisely because of this reason. The prosecutor withheld evidence and lied to the jury and the defense counsel. The defense counsel didn’t know his job and failed to follow up on vital questions pertaining to the case.
Only because of the vindictiveness of the state of Oklahoma was the case further pursued until its officials got the result they wanted. Now they want Glossip dead simply because they don’t want to look stupid for having believed the highly dubious testimony of a convicted murderer trying to save himself from the gurney. But they already look stupid, both for that reason and because they’ve been exposed as wholly incompetent in carrying out executions.
There is no other legitimate reason remaining, save depraved indifference to human life, to kill Richard Glossip. Let’s end this farce now before it’s too late and state officials have the blood of an innocent man on their hands.
Michael you are absolutely correct.
There is a litany of farcical State sanctioned Oklahoman mistrials since the days of “Cowboy Bob” Macy – rather a devious and dubious AG in that backwater. Macy was the AG before the present sad specimen. A 1999 Chicago Tribune profile on Macy (who infamously sent 54 people to death row, in a State with 1.215% of the population of the USA) said the following of him. ” Macy has cheated. He has lied. He has bullied. Even when a man’s life is at stake, Macy has spurned the rules of a fair trial, concealing evidence, misrepresenting evidence or launching into abusive, improper arguments that had nothing to do with the evidence, according to appellate rulings condemning his tactics.”
Stunning folks these myopic, devious and truth avoiding Republican Oklahomans! Is the present AG ANY different? Is this in fact a ‘mitigating circumstance’ for the present abomination of a farcical sentencing to death of Richard Glossip? Will these geniuses allow Glossip a fourth last, ‘last meal?’ Remember Mr. Fascist Executioner, first socks THEN shoes. You Oklahomans are actually giving idiots a bad name.
Why not get 20 top judges from around the world to debate this sorry case on Prime Time television. You are already CONVINCED beyond ‘reasonable doubt’ of the ‘guilt of murder’ of Glossip. Have 10 USA Judges, have 10 judges from the English speaking world. As moderator have Philip K. Howard (that rarity – a USA lawyer with wisdom, insight and a conscience). He will have the casting vote. the ‘rectitude’ of this dodgy’legal’ decision will be REALLY exposed for what it is, an abomination, falsehood and a farce.
Michael, you are SO on the button about them looking so stupid. They have spun SUCH a web of lies. THIS is why there is such GLOBAL disgust with the falsity of these farcical mistrials. Sky News have had a running mockumentoryon this case for some time now – this is seen in 127 ountries around the world!
A 2014 study by the USA National Academy of Sciences found that AT LEAST 4% of people sentenced to death in the USA ARE INNOCENT!! The Oklahomans are SO proud of their share in getting this WONDERFUL statistic! Many Republicans, who are SO narrow minded that they can look through a keyhole with BOTH EYES synchronously, absolutely LOVE this statistic from one of their own august institutions. They just CANNOT see the repreated horror of just bolstering this figure? Why spoil a perfect lynching? Why let the ACTUAL facts get in the way of truth? That is NOT the tradition in Oklahoma.
Huge dollops of wisdom are needed in the USA in general and Oklahoma in particular apropos their (yet another) abomination of repeated cock-up in law, exemplified by the Glossip fiasco.
“It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.” For the bloodthirsty Republicans functioning on too few higher cortical brain cells, (is it the moonshine or congenital?) – that is a ‘met – a – phor.’ That is why I again say, there are none so deaf…..
Q.E.D.
Adding..about those many changing stories by Sneed. He changed his story while being questioned by police because that’s what killers do. Sneed did not introduce the idea to police that Glossip was involved. The police had already concluded he was, especially after he failed a lie detector test big time after that 1st round of questioning.
As for the ever more damaging details Sneed came up with over the years and trials? Again, from watching his interview, I can guess at a motivation. Sneed has convinced himself that its entirely Glossip’s fault that he’s in prison for life, and he hates Glossip. I don’t believe the State had to coax Sneed into embellishing and piling on lies…revenge is motive enough.
Sorry..method =meth
BTW…..Cross (reporter) hunted down many of Glossip’s jurors, for trial 1 and 2. Only ONE of those jurors said he’d change his vote from guilty had he been presented with all the info now known. The significance of that for Glossip is zilch. That lone juror was on the first jury, the jury who basically didn’t hear a defense case.
I’m actually shocked that other 1st trial jurors weren’t more open to changing their minds, even after finding out what a farce of a trial they were subjected to.
WNT- Substitute “circumstantial” for ‘ suspicion.” Yes, the case against Glossip was entirely circumstantial, other than the evidence of testimony by Sneed. There is nothing unusual in having a case prosecuted with only circumstantial evidence. Only in TV-land are cases consistently won or lost on DNA type evidence .
About something being missing, etc., and accessory after the fact. Please try for a few minutes to look at this completely objectively. Pretend you are on the jury and are abiding by your duty not to reach any conclusions until you meet as a jury and deliberate.
Now. This is what is being testified to: Glossip was brought in for questioning AFTER VT’s body was found. Glossip will say later that he didn’t want to snitch on Sneed if what Sneed had told him about killing VT wasn’t true. Sitting there with police, though, he does NOT tell them about Sneed’s “confession.” He in fact tells them, at length, about the soapdish and the fight with cowboys that never happened.
Accessory after the fact makes sense here ONLY if Glossip is trying to cover for Sneed in this interview. But he isn’t. Glossip went out of his way to point the finger at Sneed. He suggested that Sneed was violent. He brought up that drug dealing and drug taking you mentioned. And whoring at the hotel as well. He was told by police that his story wasn’t making much sense. He was asked directly if he thought that Sneed would accuse him of involvement and Glossip said he was positive Sneed would.
Does that add up for you still as accessory after the fact? It sure doesn’t for me. There’s no logic of any kind that makes sense of Glossip covering for a man because he didn’t want to falsely accuse him, then accusing him at the first chance YET not mentioning that supposed conversation with Sneed in which Sneed confesses.
BTW, about Sneed being dependent upon Glossip. G’s attorneys argue the exact opposite, that Sneed wasn’t in fact dependent upon Glossip, and had his old roofing job available anytime he wanted it. Personally I think the truth isn’t either of those versions. I think Sneed was a lazy lying meth addict who found it easiest to lay about a motel for free, with easy and infrequent tasks to complete when called upon at all. His dependency was to method, not Glossip.
But, I think that version doesn’t help Glossip on the question of innocence. I watched Sneed’s interview. My impression was of a man who didn’t have to be asked twice by Glossip to kill VT,and who didn’t care what Glossip’s reasons were as long as there was a pile of money in it for method to be had.
Where the dependency story DID matter was in the penalty phase. The State needed to portray Glossip as a ice-blooded manipulator who took advantage of a resourceless young man entirely for his own purposes. Bull.
As I keep saying, I get why the jury found Glossip guilty and I think he is too. But, there is no way that jury would have voted for the DP had the State put on an honest penalty phase case. They did not.
The unlogicability of the Oklahoma judicial system is mind-boggling. Actual reasons to think someone is innocent don’t matter. What does matter is that a life is saved – for now – by the inability of anyone there to do an easy calculation that any analytic chemistry student could manage as a trivial exercise, and/or their lack of understanding of what an ionic compound is in the first place, not to mention the grasping money-greedy hand of the physician-bureaucrats in prohibiting the use of an ordinary shaker of salt substitute and a 22-micron filter for doing a murder that no physician can ethically do anyway.
“In ordinary times, lunacy is fought by sanity. But in times like these, lunacy must be fought by another kind of lunacy.”
Is that quote a take on the line by the Elemental in Chronicles of Riddick?
Hopefully this indefinite stay of execution will last long enough for somebody to lodge a challenge questioning if capital punishment is violating the basic human rights of the condemned to the highest courts in America. We now live in a world where the majority of of developed countries find the death penalty an unacceptable form of punishment. It is a long, torturous sentence bringing untold psychological torment to death row prisoners for many years before they finally reach their execution date. Then they are subjected to a long, drawn out event that will result in their death. Surely if they are to die it should be a respectful death, death without undue suffering. After recent well documented incidents this doesn’t seem to be the case with the Lethal Injection. I have dealt with all of the drugs used in the Lethal injection in my professional life, always for the positive benefits, hopefully helping people to get better. To know that these drugs are being used in a concoction to end life sickens me, they are made to save lives, not end them. Doctors prescribe them/use them as they are intended to be used, nurses also administer them in the same fashion. To have some Joe Soap with fcuk all knowledge use them (going completely against the reason they were created for) to kill someone is disresptful to the aforementioned professions as well as being undignified to the accused. (We’re gonna kill you but we can’t be arsed getting someone who knows what they are doing to do it). The more I hear/read about Richard Glossip, his case, the state of Oklahomans relentless quest to execute him the more thankful I become that I don’t live in America this is because I could be in the wrong place at the wrong time, have someone make false accusations against me, get the wrong solicitor and the wrong jury and end up being the next victim of this barbaric, ethically corrupt punishment.
Pete, you hit the nail on the head! The Glossip farce/fiasco is the apotheosis of everything that is wrong with the USA, particularly its severely flawed/criminal, ‘criminal legal’ systems. As a medical doctor myself, for 40 years, I concur with your views on the legally sanctioned ‘fascist’ technicians, using medicines to kill yet another innocent. This obviously is to assuage the primitive visceral response that ‘blood needs blood.’ Morally, Oklahoma is no better than ISIL. They just kill (also sometimes indiscriminately if you don’t have the money of an OJ Simpson or an Oscar Pistorius), with ‘sophisticated’ 21st century ‘weapons.’
Shame, it will be a little while yet before they can ‘test drive’ their new supa-dupa $100000 execution chamber they are all so immensely proud of. Just imagine the horror if they wasted $100000 on education or healthcare?! It appears that due to inbreeding depression, they could not even get the correct assassination drugs available on time. Remember, first socks then shoes.
Gulistan (1258) said “there is no great difficulty to separate the soul from the body, but it is not so easy to restore life to the dead.”
The world has yet to see the incontrovertible evidence of the alleged ‘guilt’ of the convenient scapegoat, Glossip. This conforms with the USA dictum, “Kill first, ask questions later.”
The extreme guilt/complicity of the ‘Fascist’/Police State of Oklahoma in this matter, is and will be a reminder of a very dark period, when yet another impecunious and innocent human, was killed by false/arbitrary ‘legal’ hominids (Homo neonaziensis subspecies oklahomaensis), masquerading as the misnamed, Homo sapiens.’ Civilization is the lamb’s skin in which barbarism masquerades.’ The USA and Oklahoma in particular, are a prime examplar of this fact.
Remy De Gourmont (?1924) presciently said,” It is fairly obvious that those who are in favour of the death penalty have more affinity with assassins than those who are not.” Q.E.D.
The folk in the USA obviously have no shame nor insight? They reinforce the fact that money does not bring wisdom, righteousness nor morality.
Indefinite stay request by OK Attorney General for all executions
The death penalty is barbaric, and needs to be stopped!
Murder, by anybody, be it another person or a court, is still murder!
Why do we allow our own government to murder, and call it ‘legal’ simply by assuming elected people have more honor or more intelligent than anybody else?
Their choices are NOT ‘more’ legal, and certainly not more justified, especially when it comes to the life of another human.
NOBODY is so high and mighty to decide the fate of another, no matter who they are, or what theitr job might be!
STOP the death penalty, FOREVER!
It is absolutely INHUMANE and BARBARIC!
It’s almost like someone has a conscience and just can’t go through with this highly questionable execution although ALL executions are highly questionable. Hopefully, within 37 days, something will happen so this man doesn’t have to go through another gut wrenching scenario where his life is hanging in the balance that in itself is cruel and unusual punishment.
Well said Rick. But sadly (it is rumoured) Prater and Fallin have been rehearsing the following verse from a musical with the name of one of the USA States in it, can’t think which one it is!:
” Oh what a beautiful execution,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I have that wonderful feeling,
Glossip is going away. ”
What a sick legally sanctioned/driven farce. Martin Luther King Jr. was right when he said, “Never forget that everything Hitler (could have been Macy, Prater or Fallin) did in Germany (or could have been Oklahoma) was ‘legal’.”
Legality is not synonymous with truth, righteousness, morality, justice, certitude, reason or principle. It cannot often even decide absolute guilt or innocence. The Glossip case just reinforces this arbitrary, mad ‘game’ or hyperbole contestation.
Except that’s not what’s going on. OK is afraid of another botched execution, especially with the media attention being paid right now. They’re waiting that odd number of days because after that time they’ll have the legal alternative of nitrogen gas available to them should they not be able to secure all 3 drugs for lethal injection.
The only thing that could spare Glossip’s life now is having Sneed actually recant. He won’t.
This is just a further ‘speed wobble’ and yet another sign of stupidity arrogance, ignorance and deviousness, in the ongoing farcical/tragic case of State/legal sanctioned ‘brutality/murder’ of yet another innocent.
We have yet to see ANY material evidence that Glossip was the ‘mastermind’ behind the savage murder of Barry Van Treese. Yet with almost ‘fascist’ relish and ruthlessness, a State with a dreadful history of falsely convicting people of murder is about itself to sanction the murder of another innocent. The actual violent drug addicted murderer – with now 9 believed versions of the murder events will live!
All legal students in the USA and the entire globe should have to evaluate all the falsity, deviousness, even criminality involved in this case BY agents of the police State of Oklahoma. Why SO MUCH information withheld from the jury by devious legal/police agents? Why so much secrecy? Why so much police/AG intimidation of witnesses to the truth? Why no follow up of the purported fact that Sneeds OWN daughter (after numerous conversations with her dad) has apparently said that Sneed set Glossip up?
Films and books will describe this sorry tale in the future. The truth WILL eventually emerge. It CERTAINLY has not come out of ANY Oklahoman court. You must all be so proud of yourselves. Shame, a further 37 days till you can put yet another notch on your bedposts.
It is actually your farcical/devious/error prone systems, in your sick version of your testosterone drenched ‘game of law’ that have been put on trial. In the eyes of the thinking world, you have been found wanting.
It is righteousness that exalts a nation. That means doing what is right. You have just exhibited with crass impunity, what is wrong with yourselves. May God have mercy on your souls and particularly those of the duped members of the juries involved.
When are you going to raise the bar of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ from off the toilet floor? Your 3:2 and 5:4 decisions just reek of arbitrary injustice.
Have a lovely day.
Liquid Drano forced down the throat would do the deed just fine…
Do us a favor and give it a test run. Have family members around to let us know how it works.
What actual evidence is there that this man is guilty? The state seems a little too concern about not being wrong, rather than actually getting it right.
There is no evidence whatsoever linking Glossip to the murder. None. But Oklahoma, like Texas, enjoys murdering people regardless of their guilt. It’s a sadistic, barbaric fetish shared by many Americans, as any comment section in regards to this story illustrates.
The actual murderer is a maintenance man named Justin Sneed. He has admitted that he beat Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. After he committed the murder, he told authorities that Glossip offered him “money and job opportunities” for the killing.
That’s it. That’s the state of Oklahoma’s justification for murdering Glossip.
In a fine Christian state like Oklahoma, where they actually put a ban in place against Sharia Law because (ya know, because Muslims are savages with no respect for the sanctity of life) , “Justice” is meted out with the same level of seriousness as a banana republic.
Pretty sure this law was designed to bring down big conspirators, like the Mob who now uses it to execute their own orders.
There is additional evidence other than Sneed’s testimony. Oklahoma law requires that there is, and such evidence was presented to the jury and ruled sufficient later on in appeals.
Read up on it and decide for yourself if in your opinion there was enough circumstantial evidence to convict Glossip.
Saying no other evidence other than Sneed’s testimony was presented, though, is just flat out untrue and ignores what was actually problematic with his trial (2nd).
Then you should be able to provide that compelling additional evidence that didn’t rely solely on the words of Seed instead of saying “Read up on it”.
Pretending that the state of Oklahoma took this case seriously and didn’t base their entirely reckless justification for murdering Gossip on the testimony of Sneed is ” is just flat out untrue”
I’ve already posted about that evidence as have others, here in comments. It would take all of 15 minutes of your time to read at least one comprehensive article about his case, or to skim over an appellate court ruling that explicitly lays out the whole case against Glossip and an evaluation of the corroborating evidence.
Sorry, but it’s difficult to take seriously the opinion of anyone who can’t be bothered to do even a modicum of their own fact-finding.
Your evidence is that Glossip was acting suspicious. Yeah, he steered police away from searching his boss’s motel room. Yeah, he didn’t snitch on Sneed the moment the guy claimed he killed someone. For all I know he might even have tried to cover up the murder after the fact. I don’t know what he and Sneed had going on, or what kind of crooked dealings were happening in that hotel. Sure, it’s all very suspicious.
You really gonna throw the first stone based on “suspicious”?
It’s not “my evidence.” I don’t understand why what happened at Glossip’s trial is so difficult for anyone to grasp. It wouldn’t be if the effort was made to read just a little bit of any of numerous original sources. Reasonable people can disagree about how strong the evidence was that was presented, but NOT over whether additional evidence was presented.
1. The misdirection by Glossip the day victim’s body was discovered, list is long and includes inconsistent stories about when he last saw Van Treese, not directing attention to broken window and alleged fight in room 102, etc etc etc etc etc. Look it up.
2. Witnesses testimony that Glossip ‘s behavior that day was unusual for several reasons. Look it up.
3. Witness testimony (2-3 witnesses) that Van Treese was very upset with Glossip the night before he was murdered and intended to confront Glossip the next day. (Not including Sneed’s testimony here).
4. Testimony that Glossip was selling his possessions after his first interrogation by police, before he was charged, and that he’d said he was selling stuff because he was moving on.
5. Having $1,200 in his possession when arrested that could not be accounted for ($$’s from paycheck, sale of stuff etc. did NOT add up), the $$ amount was consistent with Sneed’s account of splitting the $$ from VTreese’s car.
6. Testimony that the hotel receipts indicated a shortage of $6k odd dollars, etc.
Etc. Really, look it up.
That’s an impressive amount of suspicion, yes. But all of it is consistent with the possibility that Sneed – who was utterly dependent on Glossip financially, and would have more to lose if he were fired – did this on his own, and then Glossip covered for him solely as an accessory after the fact. Which is bad, but not a capital crime. There is of course some key fact we are missing – I don’t know what it is. In this scenario, it could be if Glossip and Sneed were lovers. But it might be something else – like if there was drug dealing going on at the hotel, for example. Some of the scenarios might actually be “felony murder”, but not literal murder; others, like the accessory, are things that Glossip would avoid using in defense out of fear of only being considered more guilty.
The whole case is put together as if you were taking out a light switch, and lacking a wire nut, you just shove the two wires into the box loose and hope they meet … then paint it over and hope for the best.
@Wnt & Julie-if I was on the jury I wouldn’t believe anything that law enforcement testified to, nothing. There would have to be some other evidence that is really compelling to convict.
Phil…if you knew ahead of time you wouldn’t believe anything law enforcement said, you shouldn’t be allowed to serve on any jury,because of your bias. You would be eliminated in initial voire dire, actually.
An impartial jury is absolutely essential to our system of justice. I’ve done my fair share of ranting over the years about verdicts I found incomprehensible, but I don’t support jury nullification, and I really am not ok with juror bias or dishonesty.
And what “evidence” might that be?
Oklahoma is enjoying this just a little too much. Foreplay is fine, but you have to consummate the deal at some point. Eventually, people are going to conclude that Oklahoma is just a tease, and turn their attention to wars or other forms of entertainment.
Thanks for the good thoughts. You should write a book Benito
“The renovation also happened to diminish the transparency of the process: the state eliminated from its viewing area seven seats previously available for media witnesses, reducing the total number of journalists’ slots from 12 to five, while also removing the clock from the execution chamber. Now corrections officials will provide details on the time it takes the state to kill a prisoner.”
Most curious and interesting about the removal of the clock.
During a Periscope by one of the photojournalists inside the prison’s media room, I heard DOC spokeswoman Terri Watkins tell the selected media witnesses that they couldn’t wear watches inside the viewing room. When questioned why, she replied “Blame Apple,” because it had something to do with the new Apple watches.
But that’s not all I heard. Later on, I listened to an interview given by Sister Helen Prejean, and she mentioned having her watch on and looking at the time while she waited in the witness waiting room.
Which leaves me wondering…was Sister Helen’s watch just an oversight on the part of the prison, or are journalists being prevented from knowing the amount of time an execution takes now? The fact that the prison now turns off the mic after the prisoner’s last words tells me it’s probably the latter.
Most curious and interesting indeed.
hi Karin
I am completely of the same opinion lik you. These renovations diminish transparency.
And I doubt, whether this is by these right-wing republicans in the house of representatives and in the senate!
They are the driving force behind this death-penalty industry and we as Germans and we as Europeans will continue blocking transportations of such drugs to USA because they are abused for such executions. Such drugs are for hospitals and not for prisons!
And I am also of the opinion, that the republicans want to hide executions from the public for not needing to admit that something went completely wrong.
This point and that already so many innocent people got executed, the point that us-military is involved in the downing of more than 1.000 innocent passengers onboard of TWA800, MH17, MH370, Air Asia and others and the point that these drone-murderers carried out by the us-government are all nothing else than death-penalties without any fair trial!
The us-government, this shadow-government consisting of Blackrock, Blackstone, Goldman-Sachs and Lehmanbrothers are so baldy corrupted and they squeeze out the money of Europe for the greece banks and they have another long planned goal:
wipeing out all human minkind with poisoness Chemicals for installing a new kind of human beings which will be more easy to govern, which they can more easily supress and which will not do uproar on wrongdoeing by this highly illegal shadow-government and the us-government!
My first thought was that perhaps the Apple watch has a camera, but no, one needs to have also an iPhone to take a picture. So what it comes down to is that they want to avoid the terrible publicity they received for botching the Lockett execution. If nobody has a watch, there will be no possibility of contradicting the lies they will tell.
I find it ironic almost to the point of humor that these people can talk about the sanctity of life and the strength of their Christian beliefs, yet violate one of their own 10 Commandments. It demonstrates to the world that the hypocrisy of the United States is not limited to the higher ups, but rather extends to the lowest levels of power.
“If nobody has a watch, there will be no possibility of contradicting the lies they will tell.”
Exactly. Which is why I thought it was so strange that no one bothered to check and see if Glossip’s spiritual advisor was wearing a watch or not, which according to her, she was. Only the media was asked to remove their watches (I’d be interested to know if any of the other witnesses were asked to remove theirs). Again…a simple oversight? Or are these new protocols (including the renovation’s removal of the clock) SPECIFICALLY designed to thwart the media and prevent tranparency?
“Most curious and interesting about the removal of the clock. ”
Well, it is half of a bomb.
While reading that par t of the article, I wondered if they would allow spectators to wear watches.
And another thought now occurs to me. Not only will it prevent knowing how long the execution takes, it will also prevent knowing exactly WHEN the execution begins.
There’s no need to make up farcical reasons for this. The notion that the government thinks it is justifiable to murder someone in cold blood but unethical to take a picture of it… our polemic cannot improve on that.