Richard Glossip’s Innocence Claim Draws Growing Attention

Richard Glossip, who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Oklahoma on September 16, is seek­ing a stay of exe­cu­tion to allow con­sid­er­a­tion of his claims of innocence. 

Glossip was con­vict­ed sole­ly on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Justin Sneed, then 19 years old, who con­fessed to the crime and said he hired Glossip to help him. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked Glossip to the crime, and Sneed gave inves­ti­ga­tors mul­ti­ple con­tra­dic­to­ry descrip­tions of the mur­der before adopt­ing police sug­ges­tions that Glossip was involved. He received a plea deal avoid­ing the death penal­ty in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Glossip. 

Glossip’s cause has been cham­pi­oned by death-penal­ty oppo­nents actress Susan Sarandon and Sister Helen Prejean, as well as by tele­vi­sion host Dr. Phil McGraw and British busi­ness tycoon Richard Branson, among oth­ers. As the exe­cu­tion date approach­es, Sky News reports that an on-line peti­tion to spare Glossip has ​“topped 250,000 sig­na­tures and is still grow­ing.” In a Sky News inter­view and on the Dr.Phil Show, Sarandon made impas­sioned pleas for a stay, call­ing Glossip, ​“clear­ly inno­cent.” Branson wrote, ​“there are plen­ty of rea­sons to believe Glossip did not com­mit the crimes he was accused of,” and urged Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to grant a reprieve, say­ing, ​“Giving him anoth­er oppor­tu­ni­ty to prove his inno­cence is not being weak on crime, it’s being strong on jus­tice.” He tweet­ed ​“10 deathrow pris­on­ers exon­er­at­ed in Oklahoma since ​’76, 4 based on find­ings of false testimony.” 

Glossip told Sky News reporter Ian Woods, ​“My main goal was to make sure the whole world knew that I was inno­cent.… More and more peo­ple sign every day because they see that this is an injus­tice, and a mas­sive injus­tice.” 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.”