Execution of loss of life row inmate — who has had 3 'final meals' and 9 scheduled execution dates — blocked by Supreme Court docket

• The Supreme Court docket blocked the execution of an Oklahoma man on loss of life row on Friday.
• The choice got here after the state’s legal professional common mentioned his life ought to be spared.
• Richard Glossip has been incarcerated for over twenty years and has confronted a number of execution dates. 

The US Supreme Court docket blocked Oklahoma from executing Richard Glossip, a person who has already had three separate “final meals” and confronted quite a few scheduled executions.

The loss of life row inmate has been concerned in a long-standing battle to stay after he was incarcerated accused of a 1997 murder-for-hire plot.

The excessive court docket put the execution on maintain indefinitely after Oklahoma’s attorney general said Glossip shouldn’t be killed later this month. 

Glossip was having his closing go to together with his spouse, Lea Glossip after they had been instructed concerning the information.

“I yelled out, ‘You are kidding!’ at first,” Glossip instructed CNN in a phone interview from Oklahoma State Penitentiary on Friday. “I need to proceed to combat. I need to proceed to get my message out to folks,” he mentioned. 

Glossip, imprisoned for the final 26 years, thought he was going through the top of his life on Might 18. Throughout his incarceration, the 60-year-old has had 9 execution dates — three of which utilized till he was simply hours away from being killed by the state.  

In September 2015, jail officers realized that they had obtained the inaccurate deadly drug solely moments earlier than he was scheduled to be executed. His execution was stayed, and the incident led to a seven-year moratorium on the loss of life penalty within the state, in line with the Related Press.

There have been two separate investigations into the circumstances of Glossip’s case, who has repeatedly maintained his innocence. Republican Oklahoma Lawyer Normal Gentner Drummond lately mentioned, “Glossip’s trial was unfair and unreliable,” per the Related Press. 

Varied high-profile celebrities have additionally supported Glossip in his case. “Richard Glossip wants our assist urgently! He has been on Oklahoma’s loss of life row for twenty-four years for against the law he didn’t commit,” Kim Kardashian lately tweeted. 

“There may be nothing extra harrowing than the considered executing a person who the state now admits has by no means obtained a good trial,” His legal professional Don Knight mentioned in a press release. He added they hope the court docket will “vacate Mr. Glossip’s conviction as soon as and for all.” 

In 1998, Glossip was convicted and sentenced to loss of life for ordering the homicide of his former boss Barry Van Treese. The person who admitted to killing Van Treese, Justin Sneed, was sentenced to life in jail to keep away from the loss of life penalty in alternate for his testimony towards Glossip. 

Nevertheless, an unbiased investigation commissioned by Drummond concluded Glossip ought to be given a brand new trial as a result of “a number of and cumulative errors” throughout the authentic proceedings, CNN reported. 

Whereas the Supreme Court docket considers the case, Glossip instructed CNN what he and his spouse, an anti-death penalty activist who her married final yr, plan to do if he’s ever launched.

“I’ve by no means been on a airplane, so that they need to get me on a airplane and take me someplace,” he mentioned. “And I’ve by no means seen the ocean, so we need to go do this.”

“I am right here to inform all people, do not ever delay what you must get finished. Do it now as a result of no person’s promised tomorrow,” he added.