JUST ONE DAY after Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin suddenly halted Richard Glossip’s execution, citing last-minute concerns over the state’s lethal injection drug protocol, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt sought an indefinite stay on all scheduled executions in the state.
“The Attorney General needs time to evaluate the events that transpired on September 30, 2015,” Pruitt wrote in a request filed with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday, October 1. In particular, Pruitt cited the acquisition by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections “of a drug contrary to protocol” and its “internal procedures relative to the protocol.” In what has been described as a “mix-up,” officials at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary obtained a box of potassium acetate, a drug with applications that range from de-icing runways to mummification, rather than potassium chloride, the final drug in Oklahoma’s three-part lethal cocktail.
In a press conference Thursday, Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton struck a defensive tone, blaming the state’s drug supplier for the mistake, but would not identify where the drugs came from. (As in many other death penalty states today, Oklahoma’s drug supplier is secret under state law.)
But the official explanation left many unanswered questions about how Oklahoma came so close to killing Glossip with a drug that does not appear in its official protocol, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Glossip v. Gross just a few months ago. It remains unclear what officials knew and when they knew it. And a closer look at the protocol, which was revised after the disastrous execution of Clayton Lockett in 2014, shows that Oklahoma remains ill-equipped to follow its own guidelines and avoid botched executions.
Glossip was sentenced to die for the 1997 murder of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese, based almost entirely on the word of the confessed killer, a 19-year-old motel maintenance man and meth addict named Justin Sneed. Sneed admitted that he beat Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, but said that Glossip made him do it. In exchange for testimony against Glossip, Sneed was given a life sentence, which he is serving at a medium security state prison. (For details on the case, see The Intercept’s July investigation.)
ON THURSDAY, according to The Oklahoman, Gov. Fallin told reporters that a doctor at the prison first noticed the drug error in the “late morning,” after the prison received the drugs. The doctor “did the right thing,” Fallin said. He “told the legal counsel of the Department of Corrections, who called the attorney general’s office. Then they notified my office and I made the decision not to go forward.”
(According to The Frontier, a spokesperson for the governor admitted that officials “briefly considered” moving forward with Glossip’s execution using the potassium acetate — a claim Robert Patton dismissed as “crap.”)
Patton told reporters that the state’s drug provider informed the DOC back in August that it “had access to the necessary drugs” to carry out Glossip’s execution, which was then scheduled for September 16. That execution was stayed just hours before Glossip was set to die. But Patton said the errant potassium acetate did not arrive until Wednesday, September 30, the day of Glossip’s new execution date. The execution drugs were delivered “in a sealed box,” he said. It wasn’t until 1 p.m., just two hours before the execution was set to begin, that the DOC opened the box and discovered the mistake. The discrepancy between this version of events and the governor’s was not explained.
Officials spoke to the provider, Patton said, “whose professional opinion was that potassium acetate was interchangeable with potassium chloride at the same quantity.” But nowhere is potassium acetate mentioned as an approved drug in the state’s protocols, a fact that created a “legal ambiguity,” in Patton’s words, leading to Glossip’s last-minute reprieve.
Even taken at face value, however, the scenario Patton described still apparently violates Oklahoma’s official execution protocol, which dictates that the warden must review the prison’s “execution inventory” two days before any execution and oversee “equipment checks.” According to the protocol, Warden Anita Trammell, who was present at Clayton Lockett’s botched execution last year, should have verified on Monday, September 28, that the three drugs had been accounted for.
And while Patton told reporters that the prison does not have “state or federal authority” to store execution drugs on-site, in fact, the protocol makes clear that “upon receipt of the Order Setting Execution Date,” the state is required to “ensure the chemicals are ordered, arrive as scheduled and are properly stored.” It stands to reason that, in Glossip’s case, that requirement would have been fulfilled by the time of his previous scheduled execution, on September 16, and certainly well before 1 p.m. on September 30.
Moreover, the protocol states that the DOC director — Patton — has “sole discretion” as to “which chemicals shall be used,” and requires that the condemned prisoner be informed of that decision 10 days prior to the execution. (Technically, in addition to the three-drug protocol upheld by the Supreme Court, which includes midazolam, Oklahoma has four additional approved drug combinations at its disposal — but none contains potassium acetate.) Needless to say, the DOC “did not give us notice that they were substituting drugs,” attorney Dale Baich told The Intercept at the prison following the stay.
Baich is among the team of federal public defenders who represented Glossip and other Oklahoma prisoners in their Supreme Court challenge of the state’s use of midazolam in executions. He pointed to an August 11 letter he and his colleagues received from the Oklahoma attorney general’s office, confirming that Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections had on hand “sufficient drugs” to carry out not only Glossip’s execution but also two other executions scheduled for October. “The drugs are manufactured and not compounded,” wrote John D. Hadden. “None of the drugs will expire prior to the current execution dates of these three inmates.”
Why these drugs were suddenly unavailable on September 30 remains a mystery. In his statements to reporters on Thursday, Patton attempted to explain the discrepancy, saying not only that the state didn’t have the “authority” to store drugs, but also, curiously given the last-minute nature of the stay, that the box containing the drugs “was never opened at the facility,” and that after the execution was halted, the drugs were “returned to the provider.”
Asked to explain Patton’s insistence that the DOC does not have authority to store the drugs at all, Fallin’s communications director, Alex Weintz, told The Intercept, “DOC is responsible for execution chemicals once they are delivered to their facility, and may store them once they are delivered.” But he said the “chemicals are not legally allowed to be delivered until the day of the execution.” Weintz was unable to identify a particular law or regulation that would prevent the drugs from being delivered. “You’ll need a DOC lawyer to walk you through that,” he said.
Patton has claimed that the prison does not have the proper DEA license to store the drugs. But Baich says this is “misleading.” Among the state’s sanctioned execution drugs, only midazolam requires a DEA license. The rest could be stored on-site. In response to a query from Buzzfeed asking whether the prison could obtain the drugs in more than one shipment, DOC spokesperson Terri Watkins said, “We receive the drugs together,” and declined to elaborate.
Although Weintz told The Intercept that the approach to storing execution drugs differs from the handling of other drugs at the prison, one policy specifically referenced within Oklahoma’s execution protocol states that top officials at each DOC facility must “ensure the safekeeping, storage, and disposal” of drugs confiscated or otherwise found in state prisons, and that prison supervisors “may arrange for storage” by other law enforcement authorities. This suggests that the Oklahoma State Penitentiary has the capacity, at least, to store a sedative like midazolam. If it is indeed the case that the law forbids the drug from being delivered until the day of the execution, it is hard to understand why the state’s execution protocol would require verification that supplies are on hand two days before the actual execution.
FOR ALL THE LINGERING questions, the attorney general’s actions Thursday marked a bizarre twist in what had already been a dramatic 24 hours. At 3 p.m. Wednesday, defense attorney Don Knight was consoling members of Glossip’s anguished family outside the prison as they awaited what they thought was his imminent execution. The next day at that hour, with Glossip still alive, Knight was back in his office in Littleton, Colorado, when he heard about the stay request. “How do you like that?” Knight told The Intercept on the phone Thursday. “That is fabulous. That is fabulous.”
Dale Baich, who has challenged the state’s lethal injection protocol on Glossip’s behalf, was on a flight back home to Phoenix when he received the email from the attorney general’s office containing its motion to the court.
Both Baich and Knight have questions about the discrepancies between the state’s version of events and the official protocol, which Patton claims was not violated. “There seems to be some conflict or confusion between what they said in August — we have [the drugs] — and what they are saying now,” Baich said on Thursday. The lack of transparency when it comes to the state’s drug supply adds an additional, impenetrable barrier to finding out the truth. “That’s the problem,” Baich said, adding, “It’s got to undermine the public’s confidence in the ability of the Department of Corrections to competently carry out an execution.”
Then there is the fact that Attorney General Pruitt has displayed a track record of questionable conduct in seeking to carry out executions. In its briefs to the Supreme Court in Glossip v. Gross last spring, Pruitt’s office claimed that Oklahoma was “forced” to switch its execution protocol to include midazolam after supplies of a different, more commonly used drug, pentobarbital, became unavailable. The state’s supplier “came under intense pressure from death penalty opponents,” the attorney general’s brief explained, and had stopped shipping the drug to Oklahoma. But in May, Buzzfeed revealed the heavily redacted letter the state used to back up this claim, showing that it had been written to Texas, not Oklahoma. The supplier in question, Woodlands Compounding Pharmacy, not only denied writing the letter, but said that claiming the company provided execution drugs to Oklahoma would be “an act of libel and/or slander.” Pruitt dismissed the letter as an “inadvertent” error.
In a different letter, revealed on the same day that oral arguments were presented in Glossip v. Gross, a drug company called Akorn, which supplied the drugs used to kill Clayton Lockett, wrote Pruitt’s office and demanded that Oklahoma return its supply of midazolam “for a full refund.” It included a line printed in italics and bold: “Akorn strongly objects to the use of its products in capital punishment.” As The Intercept reported in April, the letter was dated March 4, 2014 — weeks before oral arguments in Glossip — meaning that the state defended midazolam before the Supreme Court as a perfectly appropriate drug for lethal injections while knowing that at least one of its own suppliers disagreed.
FOR NOW, three men in Oklahoma who thought they were soon going to die at the hands of the state have been granted a reprieve. In addition to Glossip, who initially faced a new execution date of November 6, two other men had dates scheduled: Benjamin Cole on October 7, and John Marion Grant on October 28. There was some speculation in the press and in online forums that the state’s odd 37-day stay for Glossip was intended to provide the option of using nitrogen gas, which would be permitted under a new law that goes into effect early next month. But the DOC’s Robert Patton said the state is not ready to start executing prisoners that way.
On Friday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals — the same court that has repeatedly denied Glossip an opportunity to present new evidence of his innocence — granted Pruitt’s request for the indefinite stay. The court found “good cause” to stay the impending executions and directed the state of Oklahoma “to keep this Court advised as to the status of each case, including any adjustments to the execution protocol.”
In a statement on behalf of Glossip’s legal team, Don Knight said, “We are relieved. We hope more people will come forward with the evidence of Richard’s innocence.”
I want to state that I am a passionate warrior against capital punishment. And just to set the scene…Russia banned corporal punishment some time ago. Now for some dark humour but you have to read it all and the last bit to understand where I am coming from.
Whats wrong with good old potassium cyanide? I know why. They want to have a drug that quietly sends the victim to sleep with as little obvious suffering as possible. This unachievable. Cyanide takes about 30 seconds to work, but the spasms, choking and gagging noises accompanied by bowel and bladder evacuation, are not for the squeamish. Maybe they should use the drugs used by vets to euthanise animals? First the drug to put them to sleep, then the drug to stop the heart. Why so hard? Use the dose for horses and it would be 100% effective.
Or, you could go down the Indonesian route and have a simple firing squad down on the beach at dawn. That works. Sand is good. It absorbs the blood and gore making cleaning up easier.
I have left the best till last. The IRA method. This method is also an easy clean up, and it has the best deterrent effect because the boyo’s tape it and deliver copies to the family, the cops or the army HQ.
You spread a whole lot of plastic sheeting out on the barn floor. You sit the victim, naked on a chair, in the middle, with a blindfold on and tied securely. First you shoot the knees off, then you cut the privates off with a blunt knife and shove them into the perps mouth and tape it shut. Lastly, at the end of the choking and gagging, to finish off, you shoot a large calibre pistol shot into the back of the head. Excellent results I am assured. Wrap it all up in the plastic and into the furnace.
I am not trivialising the matter of capital punishment, but you would think a caring society would not have executions. But we know that the US is not one, so read it again if you need further reminding of the barbaric act and the societies who still permit it.
Now Governor Fallin is saying that basically the state will look very deeply into this drug debacle and not leave any stone unturned (for lack of a better term) when it comes to one of their own but God forbid they take the same initiative when it comes to the general public. Sickening, just sickening!
The legalized farce/abomination/corruption of power continues! Cowboy justice prevails. On the issue of capital punishment, why this urge to ‘kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong?’ In this case, the certitude of the one to be executed is highly questionable/problematic.
Another absurdity, should the inept, miserable and politically motivated Fallin, Pruitt and Prater get their wish for vengeance, the wrongfully accused (as per protocol) will have a pre-execution physical check-up, to confirm whether he is in a ‘fit condition” to die! No kidding. (As happened with Kelly Gissendaner). Does pre-execution diarrhoea constitute good grounds for the further cruel delaying (contravening the 8th amendment) of yet another ‘delightful’ killing – on the basis of impairment of health? What percentage of water content of the stools of the wrongfully accused, constitutes good cause for the ritualized delay of the killing and for how long?
The ‘facists’ who rule Oklahoma have sold their ‘minds’ and souls and are living with a ‘good conscience’ on the proceeds – for the next ‘democratic’ election.
No wonder Fallin hired outside council. OK’s execution of Warner was flat-out illegal. Wrong drug. Drug not on the list of legal killing drugs in OK.
In terms of legality, it doesn’t matter if the substitution was purposeful or went unnoticed because of egregious incompetence. OK’s DOC isn’t going to come out of this controversy unscathed.
The state of Oklahoma needs to take notice! An individual by the name of Johnny Hincapie from New York who was exonerated yesterday is another example of why the execution of Richard Glossip and the death penalty needs to be stopped. Our justice system has put to much uncertainty in the eyes and hearts of many Americans. The overreach and corruption that has fermented for a long time in America, I think, is starting to slowly show its ugly face.
Quite correct!
A ‘truth goes twice (for Oklahoma 1000000 times) around the world before truth gets his/her boots on!’
Over Fallin and Pruitt’s desks are, it is rumoured, banners proclaiming, “Midazolam uber alles!”
Once again, the superannuated phrase of ‘we’ll ‘clean up’ the state’ (for short term political gain) is bandied about.’ The dubious Bob ‘Cowboy’ Macy (1930-2011) ably supported by the disgraced forensic pathologist Joyce Gilchrist (died June 2015), did just that. They confused the ends with the means, truth and fact with fiction. Glossip (one of many) is just ongoing collateral damage. They ‘lied, cheated, created diversions and withheld information – even when someone’s life was on the line.’ This obviously got/gets votes.
Why no FULL inquiry into the legacy/causes of this continuing abomination of State sanctioned corruption/vice/infamy and farce? Why just an independent person to condone/illuminate what will be the ‘humane’ mix of murdering agents?!
On their money is written, “In God we trust.” I believe that same God will be especially hard on them for misusing their positions of power, to exploit, manipulate or compromise those under their miserable care. As they profess belief, they should heed the words of Isaiah 11: 1-5, particularly the bits about false evidence and hearsay. Those who possess much dare not neglect those who are denied the opportunities of obtaining justice. Two mistrials does NOT constitute justice.
Jonathan– I’m touched that you missed me. :D.
Would it surprise you to know that I’m a great admirer of Noam Chomsky? Or that I’ve been reliably leftist for longer than you’ve probably been alive? Or that I have a reputation as a formidable political activist for causes that you undoubtably support? That I began my activism over 30 years ago, as a labor organizer for low- wage workers?
My point being, one can be philosophically on the same “side” and yet disagree on many matters. That’s a GOOD thing…mindless conformity is much more to be feared.
Julie, strength to your arm and sharp brain!
The trouble with these forms of ‘communication’ is that we miss the people behind the text. We often jump to wrong conclusions!
Would it surprise you that I retired after 40 years as a medical doctor. I have likewise been involved in the left wing fight against injustice – for about 50 years. I was hounded and harassed by the fascist police of our previous regime. I have worked in prison ministries. I have worked to improve the lot of the underprivileged in schools. I have organised libraries, computer equipment and sports fields for the poorest of the poor. I have 5 grandchildren: 2 black, 1 brown and 2 white. Why? I taught my children that WHAT only matters is the colour of people’s hearts. I support the underdog. I abhor the cozy comfort of the ‘status quo.’
I also have a death sentence hanging over me. Mine is due to the failings of the flesh – leukaemia, not the infamy of the criminality of the State of Oklahoma.
BUT, while I have breath in my body, I will fight for injustice wherever I can, home and abroad. I just (wrongly) expected so much more from the USA. My personal little protest is that I no longer buy goods made in the USA.
The Glossip case is (to fallible me) the apotheosis of hypocrisy, cruel farce, injustice and legalized crimes against humanity. Pruitt has the affront to want to maintain signage having the 10 Commandments on official buildings in’ Not – ok- lahoma.’ He has missed the bit about ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ They probably will go ahead with the murder of the innocent of murder, Glossip anyway. The despicable Fallin, Pruitt and Prater have ‘In God we trust’ on their money. Certain truths are self-evident……. even from 8500 miles away.
The State of Oklahoma has condemned itself by its duplicity in this shocking case. Those involved are named and shamed around the world. Keep going Julie – proud of you! Keep up the good fight!
‘Legal’ deviousness applied. Truth mired. Justice denied. Too bad. So sad.
Jonathan– brevity is your friend, dear boy, not your enemy.
Hi Julie, lovely to have you back! You were missed. Very interesting (sideshow) development of Fallible Fallin getting outside council apropos the niceties of the execution drugs. Pity it was not for the cascade of devious events that lead to the farcical mistrials in the first place. Surely a State mired in the post-Macy and post- Joyce Gilchrist litany of the abuse of ‘The Law’ also cries out for outside council/investigation? Bob ”Cowboy” Macy sent a record 54 to death row (including Glossip) and this was compounded by forensic pathologist Gilchrist’s “flawed casework analysis” and “laboratory mismanagement” which lead to her “incorrect and falsified evidence” bringing 23 accused murderers to death row – including Glossip.”
Is this not in fact just a legal equivalent of the ‘Kunduz Abomination?’ But, wars have collateral damage don’t they? Why do you Yanks love de-oxygenated blood so much? Are the genuine grounds not prosecutorial criminality?
‘Legal’ deviousness applied. Truth mired. Justice denied. Too bad. So sad.
Interesting development, that Fallin has turned to outside counsel to advise her about what went wrong with execution drugs.
Sounds like its possible Glossip’s attorneys might have been handed a genuine grounds for a new appeal or stay.
Brodnick, you have a well developed sense of irony and humour! Well done! These brainwashed fascists are already named and shamed. They hate the name ‘fascists,’ but my dictionary says of fascism: ” A political philosophy, movement, or regime that is aggressively nationalistic and stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by dictatorial leadership, severe regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” Alternatively, ‘brutal dictatorial control.” Apropos the Glossip case, ALL the boxes are ticked on this issue. The AG of Oklahoma exhibits ALL of these attributes in particular , even so far as sending his ‘jackboots’ with guns drawn to round up a witness (Michael Scott) to the bragging by the murderer Sneed (who will live) that he set Glossip up! He has dictatorially decreed that HE (Pruitt) has decided (as judge, jury and executioner) that Glossip must die, to hell with the facts.
We know that the rap of the gavel is no substitute for proof. two wrong convictions remain two wrong convictions – and I have read the farcical trial transcripts. Proof is at the far end on a cognitive scale of confidence that varies through levels of doubt. In Oklahoma the ‘cognitive scale’ is in a rather hypotrophic condition and an oxymoron like ‘legal intelligence.’ Kill now, ask questions later is how the world rightly views the USA. With NO physical evidence, they invented motive without fact, they confused cause with consequence, opinion with fact, fact with fabricated fiction (this time their own making) and came up with yet another abomination of a mistrial with the incorrect outcome. Then they want to kill the ‘wrong’ person!
They fail to see that their lack of morality is no better than the thugs who also dish out arbitrary death sentences in the Middle East or Salem. Have they not tortured Glossip enough? What happened to the 8th Amendment? How many ‘last meals’ are they going to use as torture? With the likes of the hominids Pruitt, Prater and Fallin in mind, Rossouw (1758) wrote ” ….the severity of penalties is only a vain resource, invented by little minds in order to substitute terror for that respect which they have no other means of obtaining!” How very true indeed!
These are the ‘beings’ who think they live in a moral ‘plane’ beyond the rest of humanity. They are quite happy to kill so many people around the globe (particularly in what they in their typical sanitized double-speak, quaintly call ‘collateral damage.)’ Their failed and failing ‘war on terror’ has just made the world MORE unstable. They just do not comprehend their own stupidity and lack of morality and wisdom. The Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kanduz gave the US military their EXACT GPS co-ordinates on the 29th of September 2015. Yet in their usual typical disregard for morality, principle, decency and fact, the US Military slaughtered 22 people in the hospital with a missile strike. Those executed included children and a patient and surgical staff around a working operating table!! Well done guys! This is just so typical of your disregard for human life, both at home (particularly if one is poor, black or belonging to a minority) and those abroad. You just incrementally bump up the numbers of people who rightly despise you. At least the military could give a slight ‘apology,’ shifting blame naturally (= the American way) to the Afghan Army. There is just NO WAY that the corrupt thugs of Oklahoma could apologize for their own falsity/mistakes or wickedness!
A citizen of the USA is SEVENTY times more likely to be killed by their own police than in ANY OTHER developed country! Why? Probably the same reason that the response (in the USA marinaded with about 300 million firearms IN PRIVATE HANDS) to yet another school/college campus gun massacre is, “We must arm the teachers/lecturers better!” There just aren’t enough pills to cure stupid!
The crooked Glossip ‘fight’ is won, but the State sanctioned battle against ‘Justice’ is lost. Those still scheming of ways to execute Glossip have been found guilty of human abuse amongst the thinking of the Global Village. If their devious schemes succeed, they could still be found guilty of yet further crimes against humanity. And valuable time is wasted considering the ‘civilized way’ to yet more killing?!! You guys REALLY are an abomination.
Jonathan, can you tell me if the trial transcripts are available anywhere (other than physically at the Clerk’s office in Oklahoma) please?
Have seen versions ‘online.’ Seen enough to know that the outcome was a tragic farce. Why was so much withheld from the duped juries? Including Sneeds changing evidence, his psychiatric reports, the mysterious disappearance in the night of a guest of Van Treese’s establishment, the SHOCKING interrogation videos of Sneed, etc. etc.
Are you aware of the lengthy state sponsored criminality of Macy and Joyce Gilchrist? Why no action against this ? Pathetic myopic hypocrites! The Pruitt and Prater twits, are not even prepared to listen to those who have alleged evidence of Sneed lying to save his own skin? Why is the bar of beyond reasonable doubt so low in Oklahoma?
Whatever happened to ‘audi alterem partem?’ Listen mate, this case is already being used around the English speaking world as the apotheosis of how the game of law should NOT be played. It is the State of Oklahoma that is guilty. QED. This case is no more than the legal equivalent of a ‘Kunduz.’ You must be SO proud of yourselves?
„Sir, please stand up for you will now be executed.“
„Ok.“
„Please lie down, we will poison you right now. – Oh, shit, that’s
the wrong venom. – Sir, please return to your cell.“
„Ok.“
Three and a half days later:
„Sir, you will be executed next morning. What do you want to get as last meal?“
„A Cheeseburger and a glass of single malt.“
„Sorry, Sir, alcohol is not allowed, it might interfer with the poison we will poison you with.“
„Then a beer might do it.“
„Ok.“
„But please leave out the cheeseburger, my cholesterollevel is to high. Instead another beer would be fine.“
„Ok.“
Ten years after:
„Sir, you will be executioned right now. We will shoot you down, so please stand up.“
„Ok.“
„Damn, who supplied us with this munition? Sir, please go back to your cell.“
„Ok.“
Am I right to understand, that „Ok“ comes from „Ok“lahoma? A state that apparently likes to torture people?
It doesn’t matter, whether a human being is innocent or not guilty, there is no legitimation for torture.
Let this man go home, you have killed him a dozen times.
All one needs outside the brand-new $100000 execution chamber in McAlester, Oklahoma is a change of signage that boldly proclaims “Arbeit Macht Frei,” and ‘fascism’ (this time legal) will have come full circle.
Martin Luther King Jr., was prescient when he said, “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” However not everything done in the Glossip farce was legal. BUT, the ‘system’ has successfully covered it up.
Likewise Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) famously said (berating intellectual apathy):
” First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Thank you to all those who have ‘came for’ or stood up for one, like all of us with faults, but because of the arbitrary nature of the sick game of law and the ‘crime’ of being born poor, was deprived of adequate legal council in a series of farcical mistrials. There was – big time – State criminality involved in the cover up of the truth. ‘Lady Justice’ was again raped by ‘the system.’ Jury members were duped by deliberately having ALL the facts withheld from them.
They will be haunted for the rest of their lives – knowing that they were USED by a devious/evil system to perpetrate the ultimate evil – the killing of an innocent man. Some jurors have already said that they would have voted differently had there not been the deliberate criminality of prosecutorial misconduct, deception, deceit and deliberate confabulation. This all sounds pretty ‘fascist’ does it not?
Whatever method is used to cause a State sanctioned killing of the innocent (of murder) Glossip, will be a further crime against humanity. A day of reckoning WILL come.
We repeat, ‘Why is the standard of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ so low in Oklahoma?’ Why does the actual violent, aggressive (psychiatric information deliberately withheld from the jury), drug addicted murderer get life when the innocent of murder one he ‘set up,’ in the words of a few, (including his own daughter O’Ryan Justine Sneed) is about to be executed?! What an eternal abomination, farce, stain and blight of EVERY citizen of the USA.
First of all, I would think the State of Oklahoma should be able to find several Republican doctors who would be glad to advise on ways to kill people. After all, they do it every day. There must be a great many possible combinations of drugs that will do the job. They should ask Dr. Ben Carson if he would advise them. I don’t remember seeing a policy statement, but I’m sure he considers the death penalty essential for preserving civilization.
Second, since they have so much trouble getting the right drugs, why don’t they just admit that lethal injection is not a viable solution to their problem of killing people humanely. Hanging worked pretty well for centuries. The only problem is you need a technician who can do arithmetic, which might be a problem in Oklahoma. Some places consider shooting a good solution. That’s the method of choice here in Thailand. Just putting them in an air-tight container and then pumping the air out would work. It’s been reported to be a very pleasant way of drifting off to unconsciousness according to people who suffered anoxia during the early days of flight when they didn’t put their oxygen masks on soon enough. Are they afraid these other methods aren’t horrible enough? Many studies and common sense show that the death penalty doesn’t deter killing. Making it more painful doesn’t increase deterrence.
Spot on Procopius. Another technical point, will the hired Republican executioner have the decency to use a sterile swab before placing the needle into an ante-cubital vein of the innocent of murder, Richard Glossip? Would it be considered ‘not – politically correct’ for this hired – assassin (from the Land of the free – from guilt and justice), to be singing immediately after the administration of the injection of the lethal cocktail of drugs? Remember you have just over a month to get the 3 (that is one more than 2) components right this time. Concentrate hard on the median lethal dose. Would this man with a clear conscience, be able to sing the following? Some words and music – from the musical Oklahoma: ” Oh what a beautiful execution, Oh what a beautiful day, I have that wonderful feeelinnnn, Glossip (is finally) going away?” Just asking? Is it the brave executioner’s duty to carve yet another notch onto the bedpost of Mary (The ‘Terminator’) Fallin? It just would not be on, if such a fine specimen from the Republican Party broke one of her very well manicured nails over such a trivial issue, would it? After all, guilty or not, Glossip is just collateral damage in the war against crime. The war against drugs and terror went so well, we just added crime to the mix.
The power based legal system in Oklahoma has made up its collective ‘mind’ that Glossip will be executed in just over a month. All that needs to be debated now are the niceties of how to end a life. They believe that they(the corrupt system) have won the ‘fight.’ They fail to see that, it is themselves and their corrupt system that areactually on trial, in the eyes of the thinking world.
Sky News has shown this ongoing/developing ‘legal’ farce in 127 countries.
Pruitt has just continued in the footsteps of a predecessor the dubious “Cowboy Bob’ Macy. The latter described (according to appellate rulings (see e.g. the Chicago Tribune 1999) as: a “cheat, a liar, a bully, one who spurns the rule of law, a concealer of evidence and one prone to abusive and improper arguments.”
Who needs ‘beyond reasonable doubt” in Oklahoma.
Forgotten are the series of farcical events that lead to a number of mistrials where juries were duped by lies, confabulation and the obvious withholding of evidence.’ The world-wide disgust by reasoning people, of this abominable farce, projected as ‘legalized justice,’ is seen bythe dubious Pruitt, as a ‘Bullshit PR Campaign’ annoyingly supported by people like the Pope, the fantastic Helen Prejean, Richard Branson, Bono, Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, etc.etc.
Richard Glossip will probably just became ‘collateral damage’ – (like those in the hospital in Kunduz) in yet another misguided power seeking ‘war.’
Many books and films will in future reveal (the truth ALWAYS comes out in the end) that these Glossip mistrials, wrongful convictions (‘convincing’ 3:2 and 5:4 split decisions) and execution – after a fourth last – ‘last meal’ were an abomination, a blight and a stain on the USA. Isn’t it meant to be ‘three strikes and you are out?’
Oklahoma IS on the wrong side of history (again). With 1.215% of the USA population it has had about 6.5% of the stays of execution from ‘death row’ based on wrong sentencing. What an’ incredible’ record to be ‘proud’ of. You are obviously trying to maintain your superb record. Good job! Why, pray tell, is their a higher rate of murder in those States in the USA WITH the DP than those without? Why ‘at least’ a 4% error rate is doling out the DP in the USA. Oops, you have not yet lifted the bar of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ even off the floor of objectivity in your arbitrary dispensers of ‘law’ in the backward states.
It is righteousness that exalts a nation. That means doing what is right. Do you REALLY need the collateral damage of yet more of your misguided, failed, failing and frankly criminal ‘wars’ both within and without your borders?
Pray tell, why would Sneed’s own daughter lie that her father set Richard Glossip up? The truth WILL set you free.
I am Ricky relative asking all just to pray he gets his Real day in Court it will show he is innocent and Oklahoma should be shameful to let the person who murder Vantresse live
hi Donna Smith,
I think completely the same way. I also say: Glossip must get a fair new trail according to Artikel 9, Artikle 10 and Artikel 14 UN-Civil-pact!
We also know, that Sneed has lied in court and that there is more than enough evidence of Glssips innocence out there in the wild.
Can’t store drugs, can’t account for them, can’t substitute them, can’t go outside of the medical cartel’s safety rules for something meant to kill someone. Why, who would ever have guessed that the people and legal institutions responsible for overseeing and carrying out a pointless ritual murder would all turn out to be lunatics?
It seems that the controversy over drugs will allow Richard Glossip to live at least a few more weeks. However, it is appalling that this stay was triggered by incompetence over drugs and not over the real doubts about his guilt. It seems that Oklahoma officials (and other states) would rather kill a man than admit that they made a mistake. They appear to have no understanding of reasonable doubt when that doubt might cause them to admit an error.
Oklahoma state officials can’t seem to stop lying even after being caught telling outright falsehoods. It would be funny if people’s lives weren’t at stake.