Richard Eugene Glossip was born on February 9,1963 and is an American prisoner who was on death row for over two decades at Oklahoma State Penitentiary after being convicted of commissioning the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese.
22 Facts About Richard Glossip
1.
2.
Richard Glossip's case has attracted international attention due to the unusual nature of his conviction, namely that there was little or no corroborating evidence, with the first case against him described as "extremely weak" by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
3.
In September and October 2015, Richard Glossip was granted three successive stays of execution due to questions about Oklahoma's lethal injection drugs after Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials used potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride to execute Charles Frederick Warner on January 15,2015, contrary to protocol.
4.
The killing occurred at the Best Budget Inn in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where Van Treese was the owner, Sneed was the maintenance man, and Richard Glossip was the manager.
5.
In exchange for avoiding the death penalty, Sneed confessed and told police that Richard Glossip had instructed him to commit the murder.
6.
Richard Glossip insisted on his actual innocence and refused to accept a plea bargain.
7.
In 2001, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously threw out that conviction, calling the case "extremely weak" and finding Richard Glossip had received unconstitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel.
8.
Richard Glossip complained that prosecutors had intimidated his defense attorney into resigning.
9.
Richard Glossip attracted the advocacy of Sister Helen Prejean, but failed to get the clemency board to consider letters from Sneed's family, who believed Sneed to be lying.
10.
On September 22,2015, Richard Glossip's attorneys filed papers referring to a July 1997 psychiatric evaluation of Sneed, in which he said he understood he was charged with murder in connection with a burglary and made no reference to Richard Glossip's involvement.
11.
On September 23,2015, Richard Glossip's attorneys filed papers asserting that two new witnesses were being intimidated.
12.
On September 30,2015, Richard Glossip spoke to the UK's Sky News on the telephone from his cell as he was served his last meal.
13.
Ultimately, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin did grant Richard Glossip a stay of execution the same day, citing discrepancies with the lethal injection protocol.
14.
In other communications revealed, district attorneys referred to Drummond as a "douche", "complained among themselves that the attorney general had turned Richard Glossip's clemency hearing into a 'circus", and accused Drummond of vying for a run for governor.
15.
On July 1,2022, Richard Glossip was one of twenty-five death row inmates to be scheduled for execution in Oklahoma.
16.
Richard Glossip was scheduled to be executed on September 22,2022.
17.
Richard Glossip was then scheduled to be executed on December 8,2022.
18.
On November 3,2022, Governor Stitt again granted a stay of execution for Richard Glossip, allowing time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address his pending legal proceedings.
19.
Richard Glossip was rescheduled to be executed on February 16,2023.
20.
On January 24,2023, Richard Glossip's execution was rescheduled to May 18,2023, after Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested a new execution timetable to accommodate for staff shortages within the Department of Corrections.
21.
In May 2023, Richard Glossip's attorneys filed an application for stay of execution to the US Supreme Court citing new evidence casting doubt on the reliability of the state's star witness Justin Sneed, the man who was convicted of actually carrying out the murder of Barry Van Treese.
22.
Richard Glossip's case was covered in a Dr Phil episode.