Richard Glossip: Oklahoma Halts Execution 'to Check Drugs' - Insane, Just Insane

US and Oklahoma treatment of Glossip borders on Muslim treatment of dissidents

BBC
From the section US & Canada

Supporters of Glossip celebrate the stay Reuters

A man convicted of ordering his boss's murder has had his execution postponed at the very last minute, due to uncertainty over the lethal drugs.

Richard Glossip looked certain to die by injection in Oklahoma on Wednesday afternoon after the US Supreme Court rejected his appeal.

But Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin has asked for more time to check if the drugs are compliant with state rules.

Pope Francis had urged her to halt the execution.

His archbishop had written to her and urged her to act to commute the sentence, but she said she did not have the authority to do so.

An hour after Glossip was due to be put to death, Ms Fallin announced that she was rescheduling the execution for 6 November.

Circumstantial evidence, or the testimony of one

 person who clearly benefits from such testimony,

should never be justification for execution in 

any sane country

OK, enough is enough! How many times can you bring someone to within minutes of execution only to delay it for a couple weeks so they can do it all over again. Is this not cruel and unusual punishment? Is this really much better than Saudi Arabia's torture of Ali Mohammad al Nimr, or Raif Badawi?

Based entirely on the confession of the admitted murderer, who got to escape the death penalty by implicating someone else, the guilty finding is pathetic. Then to sentence him to death based on that flimsy self-serving 'evidence', is hardly believable. You might expect something like this in Sudan or Iran, but it should never even be possible in a modern country, especially one that considers itself the best country in the world.

I'm not entirely opposed to the death penalty, but it should never be invoked without 'hard' evidence! Circumstantial evidence, or the testimony of one person who clearly benefits from such testimony, should never be justification for execution. It is well known that innocent people are executed in the US with disturbing frequency. It is very disturbing that this doesn't seem to faze anyone in the courts system or the government.

She said prison officials had received potassium acetate for use in the execution, as one of the three drugs used, but state guidelines only list potassium chloride.

Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton said he requested the stay of execution "out of due diligence".

Richard Glossip who is pictured (left) has maintained his innocence for nearly 20 years. (Getty Images)

Glossip has refused plea deals because he says he is innocent

Glossip's boss Barry Van Treese, the owner of the Oklahoma City motel, was beaten to death in 1997.

His colleague Adam Sneed was convicted of the killing but said Glossip had ordered him to carry it out.

Glossip and his family have maintained his innocence for nearly 20 years, saying that Sneed acted alone.

He was first convicted in 1998 but that was overturned in 2001, only for Glossip to be convicted again three years later.

In the most recent appeals, his lawyers said they had an affidavit from another inmate who said Sneed admitted to setting Glossip up.

British billionaire Richard Branson took out a full-page ad in The Oklahoman newspaper on Wednesday that argued Glossip is innocent.

Anti-death penalty activists rally outside the US Supreme Court in a final
attempt to prevent the execution of Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip
 on 29 September 2015 in Washington Getty Images

Executions have been delayed recently in the US amid problems buying drugs as many firms have refused to sell them.

Oklahoma's drugs procedures have been under scrutiny since a flawed execution in April 2014.

Clayton Lockett struggled for 43 minutes before eventually dying, after an intravenous line was improperly placed.

It's just unfathomable that Americans would not know how to kill a person efficiently.

The Pope had also intervened in the case of a woman in Georgia, but Kelly Gissendaner was put to death on Tuesday.

During the pontiff's visit last week to the US, he urged Congress to abolish the death penalty.