Oklahoma Court Denies Death Row Inmate’s Appeal, Wednesday Execution To Go Forward

On Monday the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals narrowly denied the death row inmate’s last-minute request for a new hearing.

Glossip, 52, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. But just hours before he was to be put to death, the court granted Glossip a two-week reprieve after his attorneys claimed they had new evidence that he was innocent, including another inmate’s claim that he overheard Sneed admit to framing Glossip.

“Glossip claims to have newly discovered evidence that Sneed recanted his story of Glossip’s involvement, and shared this with other inmates and his daughter”.

Glossip was twice convicted of the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, who owned the Oklahoma City motel where Glossip worked. The Best Budget Inn’s maintenance man, Justin Sneed, confessed to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, but said Glossip paid him to do it. Defense attorneys argue Sneed implicated Glossip as the mastermind in order to spare himself from the death penalty.

“Glossip merely wants more time so he can develop evidence similar to the evidence presented in his subsequent application for post-conviction relief”, Lewis wrote.

Over the last month, Glossip’s legal team has raced against the clock, filing several affidavits from new witnesses and experts with the court that dispute various aspects of his conviction.

“Two judges believed a further stay of execution and a hearing on innocence was required on the facts”, Knight said.

The majority ruling said: “We find, therefore, an evidentiary hearing, discovery or further stay of execution is not warranted in this case”. Smith said the state has no interest in executing an innocent man. Judge Robert Hudson and Vice Presiding Judge Gary Lumpkin concurred with Lewis’ opinion.

Glossip had previously tried to stop his execution by saying one of the drugs used in the state’s lethal injection mix can cause undue suffering.