McALESTER, Okla. (AP) – An Oklahoma death row inmate has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his Wednesday execution after the state’s highest criminal court decided not to give him a new hearing, despite delaying his execution two weeks ago when his attorneys said they had new evidence.
Richard Glossip was convicted of ordering the 1997 killing of Barry Van Treese, who owned the Oklahoma City motel that Glossip managed. Unless the high court steps in, Glossip is scheduled to be executed at 3 p.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.
Glossip has long claimed he was framed by hotel handyman Justin Sneed, who admitted to fatally beating Van Treese with a baseball bat, but said he did so only after Glossip promised him $10,000. Sneed – who is serving a life sentence – was the state’s key witness against Glossip in two separate trials.
Glossip was originally scheduled for execution on Sept. 16. But just hours earlier, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted a rare two-week reprieve to review his claims of new evidence, including another inmate’s assertion that he overheard Sneed admit to framing Glossip.
But in a 3-2 decision earlier this week, the same court denied Glossip’s request for an evidentiary hearing and emergency stay of execution, paving the way for his execution to proceed. The court majority wrote that the new evidence simply expands on theories raised in his original appeals.