TULSA — Last month, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied a request by the state’s own attorney general to vacate the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed that motion after yet another investigation uncovered serious flaws in the prosecution and conviction of a man who’s now spend nearly half his sixty years on death row.
[You can hear our special KRMG In-Depth report on Glossip’s case HERE.]
Drummond tried again last week, arguing to the pardon and parole board that Glossip’s conviction was faulty, and the state should not execute a man if it can not be certain he is guilty.
But after one member recused himself, the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole voted two-two on recommending clemency - and in Oklahoma, the tie vote goes to death, not life.
So, attorney Don Knight tells KRMG, the next step is to return to the U.S. Supreme Court, with a lot of new evidence uncovered by multiple investigations including the one conducted under Drummond’s direction.
Meanwhile, Glossip’s scheduled to die May 18th - his ninth date with the executioner.
“We are staring down an execution date for a guy that Oklahoma admits never received a fair trial. The chief accuser against him lied,” Knight told KRMG Monday. “And (he) probably is innocent of the murder, and yet they’re going to go forward anyway. It is a staggering thought that they would do that.”
Gov. Kevin Stitt can not commute the death sentence without a majority vote by the Pardon and Parole Board.
He could issue a 60-day stay, indeed any number of such stays until he’s no longer in office, and needs no legal reason to do so.
However, last Friday, Stitt said he’d be issuing no further stays - remarking that “I’ve already stayed his execution once or twice already. So, no, unless the courts act, or there’s new evidence brought before the courts, we’re going to follow the law.”