In his new book Surviving Execution: A Miscarriage of Justice and the Fight to End the Death Penalty, Sky News reporter Ian Woods tells the sto­ry of his rela­tion­ship with con­demned Oklahoma pris­on­er Richard Glossip, whose case gained promi­nence after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review his chal­lenge to the state’s lethal-injec­tion pro­ce­dures. Although Glossip’s case is most fre­quent­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Supreme Court’s 2015 deci­sion in Glossip v. Gross and Oklahoma’s dra­mat­ic, last-minute recis­sion of his exe­cu­tion war­rant when the state’s anony­mous drug sup­pli­er deliv­ered the wrong exe­cu­tion drug, Surviving Execution focus­es more on Glossip’s con­vic­tion itself and the author’s belief that Oklahoma is attempt­ing to exe­cute an inno­cent man. Glossip, who has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained his inno­cence, was pros­e­cut­ed and sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma County by a pros­e­cut­ing admin­is­tra­tion rid­dled with mis­con­duct in cap­i­tal cas­es. The book chron­i­cles the details of Glossip’s con­vic­tion, expos­ing the numer­ous holes Woods sees in the state’s case. Against the back­drop of mul­ti­ple exe­cu­tion dates, Woods explains how he devel­oped a friend­ship with Glossip, and in turn, wit­nessed the inten­sive our­pour­ing of sup­port that Glossip gained as his exe­cu­tion date approached, includ­ing the high-pro­file involve­ment of Sister Helen Prejean, actress Susan Sarandon, and British busi­ness­man Richard Branson. Woods — whom Glossip asked to wit­ness the exe­cu­tion — also dis­cuss­es his per­son­al strug­gle over whether to watch a man die at the hands of the state. Glossip’s exe­cu­tion, orig­i­nal­ly sched­uled for January 2015, was stayed while the Supreme Court reviewed his lethal-injec­tion case. After his nar­row 5 – 4 loss in that case, Oklahoma resched­uled his exe­cu­tion for September 2015. That exe­cu­tion date was stayed by the Oklahoma courts to con­sid­er Glossip’s claim of inno­cence. Ultimately, the state court gave the go-ahead for the exe­cu­tion, and Glossip’s exe­cu­tion was resched­uled for lat­er in the month. However, that exe­cu­tion attempt was halt­ed when the state failed to obtain the cor­rect lethal-injec­tion drug and all exe­cu­tions in Oklahoma were put on hold while the state reviewed its exe­cu­tion pro­ce­dures. Woods’ book attempts to com­bine jour­nal­is­tic inde­pen­dence with his search for the truth and his con­clu­sion that Glossip was not guilty of the mur­der of vic­tim Barry Van Trease. In a Sky News pod­cast just before the abort­ed exe­cu­tion was to occur, Woods sum­ma­rized Glossip’s case, say­ing, ​“There is no incon­tro­vert­ible proof that Richard Glossip is guilty of mur­der. No foren­sic evi­dence, no eye­wit­ness account, oth­er than that of the killer, who saved his own skin by blam­ing Richard. The state of Oklahoma is going to kill him on Wednesday, so I’m not going to sit on the fence any longer. I’m telling you: I think that’s wrong.” In Surviving Execution, Woods explains why.

(Ian Woods, Surviving Execution: A Miscarriage of Justice and the Fight to End the Death Penalty, Atlantic Books, 2018; Graeme Cousins, NI jour­nal­ist Ian Woods: My unlike­ly friend­ship with death row inmate, News Letter, January 8, 2018.) See Books, Innocence, Lethal Injection.

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