Oklahoma Attorney General Gendner Drummond sought to overturn his conviction, which was, however, upheld on appeal by a court in April 2023.
The US Supreme Court today agreed to hear the appeal of a death row inmate whose fate has sparked a campaign of solidarity from the pope to Hollywood stars for 25 years on death row.
The Court already in May decided to suspend the execution of Richard Glossip, aged 60, which was originally scheduled for May 18 in Oklahoma (central USA).
In an unusual move, the conservative state’s attorney general had upheld the request for a stay, acknowledging problems with the testimony that had contributed to his conviction.
One of the defendant’s lawyers, John Mills, expressed his “gratitude”, recalling that his client “has maintained his innocence throughout the half century he has remained on death row”.
“Glossip was almost executed 9 times, even though the prosecution knew full well that the evidence for his death sentence was false,” he underlined.
The 60-year-old was found guilty of ordering the 1997 murder of the owner of a motel he was managing, based on the highly controversial testimony of 19-year-old Justin Snead, who confessed to the murder.
Richard Glossip’s supporters decry the fact that his conviction was based on the sole testimony of Justin Snead, who by pleading guilty and accusing him of being a moral perpetrator managed to avoid the death penalty.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gendner Drummond sought to overturn his conviction, which was, however, upheld on appeal by a court in April 2023.
In favor of Richard Glossip, a solidarity campaign has been launched with the participation of famous personalities such as Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo or even the billionaire Richard Branson.
In September 2015, when his execution was considered imminent, the representative of Pope Francis in the US had written a letter to the governor of Oklahoma, asking for a suspension of the sentence, which was finally done only motivated by fears about a product that would be used in the cocktail of substances that would be administered in the lethal injection.
His story was the subject of a four-part documentary series titled “Killing Richard Glossip”.
Source :Skai
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