Richard Glossip

Jun 03, 2026

Article of Interest: Richard Glossip, Released on Bail Pending Retrial, Describes His First Days Outside Prison in Nearly 30 Years

After facing nine execution dates, and being given three last meals, Richard Glossip was released on bail on May 14, 2026 and set foot outside of prison walls for the first time in nearly three decades. In an interview with The Intercept, Mr. Glossip discusses adjusting physically and emotionally to his new life as he awaits a possible retrial for the 1997 crime that sent him to death row, despite his longstanding claims of innocence. Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai ordered his…

May 15, 2026

Former Death-Sentenced Prisoner Richard Glossip Released on Bail After 29 Years in Prison

On May 14, 2026, an Oklahoma judge granted bail for former death-sentenced prisoner Richard Glossip nearly three decades after his arrest and initial conviction. He was released hours later. In her order, Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai set Mr. Glossip’s bail at $500,000, and set conditions for monitoring and behavior if he posted bail ahead of his retrial. Mr. Glossip was released after posting bail and told reporters outside the jail that he is “just really happy” and thankful for…

Executions

Conditions on Death Row

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Botched Executions

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Nov 20, 2025

Spared at the “Last Minute”: A Form of Psychological Torture?

Tremane Wood was scheduled to die at 10 a.m. local time on November 13. According to journalist Hilary Andersson, who traveled to Oklahoma to observe the execution, the call from the governor came at 9:59 a.m. Mr. Wood learned that his life would be spared at the literal “last minute.” While Mr. Wood, his attorneys, and his family experienced overwhelming relief in the aftermath of the clemency grant, according to Ms. Andersson, some also expressed shock at the timing of the decision. Mr.

Methods of Execution

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Botched Executions

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Nov 18, 2025

Facts About the Death Penalty – Is there a “Humane” Execution Method?

Some elected officials and legislators have recently promoted some methods of execution as more “humane” than others. But every execution method ever used has been shown to carry the risk of error and malfunction, with the result that the prisoner may experience pain and suffering as they are executed. Exactly how much pain and suffering the law permits is a constitutional question that has evolved with time and society’s beliefs. Methods once viewed as gruesome but acceptable, such as…

Jul 17, 2025

Oklahoma Attorney General Accused in New Court Filings of Reneging on Plea Agreement in Richard Glossip’s Case

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is facing accusations that he broke a written agreement that would have freed former death row prisoner Richard Glossip from prison more than two years ago, according to court documents filed in mid-July 2025. The revelation centers on email exchanges from April 2023, where AG Drummond, in a thread with Don Knight, counsel for Mr. Glossip, agreed to a plea deal that would have resulted in Mr. Glossip’s immediate release after more than two decades on…

Jun 10, 2025

Oklahoma Attorney General Will Not Seek Death Penalty Against Richard Glossip in Retrial

On June 9, 2025, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced that his office will retry death row prisoner Richard Glossip but will not seek the death penalty. AG Drummond’s decision to retry Mr. Glossip follows the February 2025 United States Supreme Court ruling in Glossip v. Oklahoma, in which the high court threw out Mr. Glossip’s 2004 conviction and ordered a new trial because prosecutors allowed a key witness to lie in court and withheld crucial information about the same…

Mar 27, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Denies Review in Texas Faulty DNA Evidence Case, Despite Prosecutor Confession of Error

On March 24, 2025, the United States Supreme Court denied review of Areli Escobar’s (pictured) most recent appeal of his murder conviction, which argued for relief based on the fact that the Texas prosecutor had confessed error over the misleading use of inconclusive DNA evidence at trial. In his petition, Mr. Escobar’s legal team said Travis County prosecutors had relied heavily at trial on compromised evidence analyzed by the Austin Police Department’s crime laboratory. Additional DNA testing…

Mar 05, 2025

Public Officials and Advocates Respond to SCOTUS’ Decision to Overturn Richard Glossip’s Conviction

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to vacate Richard Glossip’s 2004 death sentence, public officials and advocates have expressed strong reactions. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond acknowledged the significance of the ruling, stating, “Our justice system is greatly diminished when an individual is convicted without a fair trial, but today we can celebrate that a great injustice has been swept away.” While maintaining his belief that Mr. Glossip is not innocent, AG…

Feb 25, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Prosecutors Violated Ethical Responsibilities in Richard Glossip’s Case, Orders a New Trial

In a 5 – 3 decision issued in Glossip v. Oklahoma on February 25, 2025, the United States Supreme Court threw out Richard Glossip’s 2004 conviction for arranging the murder of Barry Von Treese and ordered a new trial because prosecutors allowed a key witness to lie in court and withheld crucial information about the same witness. Justice Sonya Sotomayor, writing for the majority, said that prosecutors in Mr. Glossip’s case “violated [their] constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,”…

Executions

Time on Death Row

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Jan 29, 2025

12:01: The Death Penalty in Context — The Death Penalty in 2024

In this month’s episode of 12:01: The Death Penalty in Context, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with DPI Communications Associate Hayley Bedard, about The Death Penalty in 2024, which highlights trends and events related to the death penalty. 2024 marked the tenth consecutive year during which fewer than 30 people were executed (25) and fewer than 50 people were sentenced to death (26), while high profile cases of death-sentenced people attracted significant media attention and new…

Oct 08, 2024

United States Supreme Court Will Consider Significance of Prosecutor’s Confession of Error in Glossip v. Oklahoma

On October 9, 2024, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Glossip v. Oklahoma, when the Court will consider multiple questions related to Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence. This is Mr. Glossip’s second trip to the Supreme Court; the first occurred in 2015 in connection with his method of execution challenge. Mr. Glossip has always maintained his innocence of the 1997 “murder for hire” crime that sent him to death row. In the intervening years, he has endured…

Oct 04, 2024

A Chance at Life, Withdrawn: When Politics Interferes with Plea Deals

American prosecutors have immense power and relatively unchecked discretion in capital cases. But in several recent cases, death-sentenced prisoners reached agreements with prosecutors that would have saved them from execution, only to learn that another official had interfered to block the agreement. Critics have argued that these decisions sow public distrust in the legal process and raise concerns that government officials may be exploiting death penalty cases for political gain. On July…

Issues

Jul 03, 2024

The 200^th Exoneration Underscores Critical Flaws in the U.S. Criminal Legal System; Other Innocent Prisoners Remain on Death Row

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972), 200 death-sentenced men and women across 30 states have been exonerated. Analysis from the Death Penalty Information Center reveals these individuals have collectively spent 2,621 years in harsh prison conditions for crimes they did not commit. On average, death row exonerees spent 13 years under the sentence of death before their exonerations, with some individuals spending more than 40 years fighting to prove their…

Issues

May 07, 2024

In Amicus Briefs, Conservative Officials, Oklahoma Lawmakers, and Civil Rights Groups are United in Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to Vacate Richard Glossip’s Conviction

On April 30, 2024, a week after the parties in Glossip v. Oklahoma filed merits briefs at the United States Supreme Court, several amici filed briefs in support of the parties’ joint position, asking the Court to grant Richard Glossip (pictured) a new trial. Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia Attorney General and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump, said in his brief that the consequences of failing to overturn Mr. Glossip’s conviction are “most dire.” During his…

Research

Mar 05, 2024

Oklahoma Execution Moratorium Bill Unanimously Passes Committee and Makes Its Way to the State-House Floor

On February 28, 2023, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee unanimously passed a bill that would pause all pending executions and prohibit new death sentences while an independent task force reviews current Oklahoma death penalty procedures. House Bill 3138, also known as the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Kevin McDugle and would create a five-member Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of…

Issues

Jan 22, 2024

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Richard Glossip’s Appeal: High-Profile Innocence Case Where the State Supports Relief

On January 22, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to Richard Glossip, sentenced to death in Oklahoma, whose innocence case has received international attention. Mr. Glossip’s execution had been scheduled for May 18, 2023, before the Court issued a stay on May 5 pending the outcome of his petitions for certiorari. Mr. Glossip’s case is unusual in that the State of Oklahoma conceded error and supports his request for a new trial. However, Mr. Glossip was forced to petition the Supreme Court…

Research

Federal Death Penalty

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Oct 03, 2023

Analysis Shows Supreme Court’s Changing View of Death Penalty Cases

A recent analysis by Bloomberg Law concluded that death-sentenced prisoners have fewer avenues to relief at the Supreme Court than ever before. Bloomberg identified 270 emergency requests to stay executions since 2013 and found that the Court agreed to block an execution just 11 times. Since 2020, when the Court shifted to a 6 – 3 conservative majority following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the Court has granted just two stays of…

Issues

Jul 10, 2023

Oklahoma Attorney General Files SCOTUS Brief in Support of Richard Glossip

On July 5, 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (pictured) filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of death row prisoner Richard Glossip’s petition for a writ of certiorari. The Innocence Project and six legal scholars have also filed briefs in support of Mr. Glossip, while the victim’s family and the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association have filed a brief in opposition. “The [Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals] OCCA’s decision cannot be reconciled with this Court’s…

Research

Jun 08, 2023

Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Expresses Continued Frustration with the Fair Administration of the Death Penalty

In a recent interview with The Marshall Project, former United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer discussed his twenty-eight years of experience on the Court and the evolution of his view on the death penalty. He explained that he did not go to the Supreme Court intending to overturn the death penalty, but “[i]t’s so unfairly administered. There’s neither rhyme nor reason. The whole point of this criminal justice system is fairness…. I’m not saying, ‘You’re all innocent.’ But there are…

Issues

May 25, 2023

Former U.S. Attorneys, Prominent Business Leaders, Write Op-Eds in Support of Richard Glossip

Former federal Oklahoma prosecutors Patrick Ryan and Daniel Webber co-authored an editorial in The Oklahoman on May 17, 2023 expressing serious concerns about Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence. The writers noted that a prosecutor’s duty “is not to win a case, but to ensure justice is done,” and concluded that “the state did not follow these fundamental principles in obtaining Richard Glossip’s 1998 and 2004 convictions and death sentences.” The former prosecutors collectively…

Issues

May 05, 2023

CASE UPDATE: U.S. Supreme Court Stays Glossip Execution

(ORDER LIST: 598 U.S.) FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2023 ORDER IN PENDING CASE 22A941 GLOSSIP, RICHARD E. V. OKLAHOMA The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Kavanaugh and by him referred to the Court is granted pending the disposition of the petitions for writs of certiorari, Nos. 22 – 6500 and 22 – 7466. Should both petitions for writs of certiorari be denied, this stay shall terminate automatically. In the event either petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the…

Issues

Apr 26, 2023

Case Update: Oklahoma Board Denies Clemency for Richard Glossip

On April 26, the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to recommend clemency for death-row prisoner Richard Glossip (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed on May 18, 2023. The board’s 2 – 2 vote constituted a denial of clemency since the governor cannot grant clemency without the board’s recommendation. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sent a letter to the board urging them to grant clemency for Glossip. “I am not aware of an Oklahoma Attorney General ever supporting a…

Issues

Apr 21, 2023

Case Update: Oklahoma Court Upholds Richard Glossip’s Conviction

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled against Richard Glossip (pictured) on April 20, 2023, despite a motion from the state’s Attorney General asking the court to vacate Glossip’s conviction and remand the case to a lower court. Glossip is scheduled for execution on May 18 but has consistently maintained his innocence. In a statement reacting to the ruling, Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said, “Since the State now agrees that the only witness to allege that Mr. Glossip was involved in…

Issues

Apr 07, 2023

Oklahoma Attorney General Moves to Vacate the Murder Conviction of Richard Glossip

On April 6, 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence and to remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s admonition that the prosecutor’s interest is “not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.” Regarding his motion to the court, Drummond said: “After thorough and serious deliberation, I have concluded that I…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Jan 27, 2023

Oklahoma Attorney General Appoints Special Counsel to Conduct ‘Thorough Review’ of Richard Glossip’s Case

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has appointed a special counsel to conduct a ‘thorough review’ of the case of death-row prisoner Richard Glossip, who has faced nine execution dates despite strong evidence that he is innocent of the 1997 alleged murder-for-hire of an Oklahoma City motel owner. In a news release issued January 26, 2023, two days after the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rescheduled Glossip’s execution from February 16 to May 18, 2023, Drummond said that Rex Duncan…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Executions Overview

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Jan 24, 2023

Oklahoma Court Grants Attorney General’s Motion to Slow State’s Execution Spree

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (OCCA) has reset the state’s execution schedule, slowing down the pace at which the 25-person execution spree it authorized in July 2022 would move forward. The order, issued January 24, 2023 in response to a motion filed by newly inaugurated Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (pictured) on January 17, rescheduled the execution dates of seven men who were to be put to death between February 16 and August 3, 2023. The court set new execution dates…

Executions

Jan 12, 2023

Oklahoma Carries Out First of 11 Executions Scheduled for 2023

Oklahoma has carried out the first of eleven executions scheduled for 2023, administering a lethal injection to death-row prisoner Scott Eizember on January 12. The execution was a continuation of a 29-month execution spree between August 2022 and December 2024 in which the state intends to put 25 prisoners to death — 58% of the state’s death row. It was the third execution of 2023, following the January 3 execution of Amber McLaughlin in Missouri and the January 10 execution of Robert Fratta…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Nov 21, 2022

Oklahoma Pushes Back Clemency Hearings, Changing Execution Timelines

Oklahoma has pushed back the clemency hearings of two men on death row, John Hanson and Richard Glossip (pictured). Glossip’s execution date was also moved back, and Hanson’s execution date will likely have to be changed. Both men were scheduled to have clemency hearings on Nov. 9, 2022, and to be executed before the end of the year, as part of Oklahoma’s planned spree of 25 executions scheduled between August 2022 and December 2024. The state’s decision to execute so many people in a short…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Nov 04, 2022

Richard Glossip Execution Halted for a Seventh Time

Oklahoma has once again put off the execution of Richard Glossip, the seventh time his pending execution has been stayed or reprieved. On November 2, 2022, Governor Kevin Stitt issued a new reprieve, staying Glossip’s scheduled December 8, 2022 execution date “to allow time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address pending legal proceedings” seeking to overturn Glossip’s conviction on grounds of innocence. Stitt’s reprieve extended the stay issued as part of a prior August 2022…

Issues

Sep 28, 2022

Oklahoma Lawmaker Calls for Investigation of Prosecutor for Deliberately Withholding Evidence of Innocence in Richard Glossip Retrial

An Oklahoma state representative has called for an investigation into the practices of the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office following additional revelations that county prosecutors deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence and manufactured false testimony to secure a conviction and death sentence against Richard Glossip in his 2004 retrial. At a news conference on September 22, 2022, the fourth date Oklahoma had set to execute Glossip, State Representative Justin Humphrey (R – Lane…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Sep 22, 2022

Lawyers for Mentally Ill Oklahoma Death-Row Prisoner Seek Clemency, Competency Trial

Lawyers for Oklahoma death-row prisoner Benjamin Cole have filed a petition with the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Parole asking the Board to recommend to Governor Kevin Stitt that Cole’s sentence be commuted to life without parole. The petition, submitted to the board on September 16, 2022, states that “Benjamin Cole today is a frail, 57-year-old man with a damaged and deteriorating brain, suffering from progressive and severe mental illness who poses no threat to anyone in any way.” Cole…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Aug 17, 2022

Oklahoma Governor Delays Richard Glossip’s Execution to Allow Litigation of Innocence Claims

Oklahoma Governor J. Kevin Stitt has issued a 60-day stay of execution to death-row prisoner Richard Glossip. The order, issued August 16, 2022, delays Glossip’s September 22 execution to provide the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals time to review a pending motion by Glossip seeking an evidentiary hearing on new evidence that he is innocent of the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, his boss at an Oklahoma City motel. Glossip filed that motion in the wake of an independent investigation that…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Jul 25, 2022

Former Oklahoma Governor and His Death Penalty Review Commission Co-Chair Call for Execution Halt

Former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry (pictured) and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, who co-chaired the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission in 2017, have called on state officials to halt the scheduled executions of 25 death-row prisoners. In a guest column in The Oklahoman on July 24, 2022, Gov. Henry, a Democrat, and Lester, a Republican, write that “All Oklahomans, regardless of one’s stance on capital punishment, should insist on an unwavering commitment to fairness and…

Issues

Upcoming Executions

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Time on Death Row

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Jul 19, 2022

Commentary: Richard Glossip’s Case Exemplifies the Systemic Flaws that Justice Stephen Breyer Warned About

As Richard Glossip faces an execution date for the fourth time, his case is a perfect example of the problems in the death-penalty system that then-Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (pictured) identified in his 2015 landmark dissent in Glossip v. Gross. In an analysis published by Slate, Jeremy Stahl writes, “Whether or not Richard Glossip is ultimately executed for a crime he likely did not commit, his and Breyer’s names will be intertwined in death penalty history. Glossip’s case is…

Issues

Jun 17, 2022

Oklahoma Legislature Releases Independent Review of Richard Glossip Case

Oklahoma legislators announced that an independent investigation revealed strong evidence of Richard Glossip’s innocence. Glossip, who came within hours of execution in 2015, is the second prisoner the Oklahoma Attorney General is seeking to execute this fall. After the investigation report was released, Glossip’s attorneys filed a motion in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, asking that an execution date not be set so that Glossip can seek post-conviction review based on the findings.

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Jun 13, 2022

Oklahoma Attorney General Requests 25 Execution Dates Despite Independent Investigation and Claims of Innocence, Serious Mental Illness, and Brain Damage

Oklahoma state prosecutors are pushing to schedule 25 executions over approximately two years, after a federal judge denied death-row prisoners’ challenge to the state’s controversial lethal-injection protocol. On June 10, 2022, Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to set execution dates for 25 of the 28 prisoners who were parties to the execution-protocol challenge. The request came just four days after Judge Stephen Friot’s ruling that the…

Executions

Executions Overview

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Feb 18, 2022

Oklahoma County Becomes Nation’s Third Most Prolific County Executioner as State Puts Intellectually Impaired Teen Offender to Death

When Oklahoma executed Gilbert Postelle on February 17, 2022, it came with a dubious distinction. The intellectually impaired man who was 18 years old at the time of his offense became the 44^th person prosecuted in Oklahoma County to be put to death since executions resumed in the U.S. in 1977. His death made the county the nation’s third-most prolific county executioner over the past half-century, tied with Tarrant and Bexar counties in Texas. (Click to enlarge graphic.) Postelle was the…

Executions

Botched Executions

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Feb 14, 2022

Autopsy Shows John Grant Suffered Pulmonary Edema and Intramuscular Hemorrhage and Aspirated Vomit During Oklahoma Execution

Autopsy results for an Oklahoma death-row prisoner whose execution state officials claimed “was carried out … without complication” have confirmed eyewitness reports that John Grant likely suffered a torturous death. The autopsy, conducted by Tulsa Medical Examiner Jeremy Shelton, M.D., the morning after Grant was executed on October 28, 2021, revealed that Grant suffered pulmonary edema and intramuscular hemorrhaging, and aspirated on his vomit as a result of the lethal injection. The autopsy…

Executions

Feb 10, 2022

Oklahoma is Paying Execution Doctor $15,000 Plus Training Fees for Each Execution

Oklahoma is paying $15,000 per execution, plus $1,000 for each day of training, to an unnamed doctor to participate in the process of putting state prisoners to death. Under the agreement, the doctor stood to receive an estimated $130,000 over the course of the 19-week-period between October 28, 2021 and March 10, 2022 in which the state had scheduled the executions of seven prisoners. The payments were disclosed by Oklahoma prison officials during federal court hearings in January 2022 on…

Executions

Botched Executions

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Oct 29, 2021

Eyewitnesses Report John Grant Experienced Repeated ‘Full-Body Convulsions’ and Vomited During Execution; Oklahoma Says Execution was Carried Out ‘Without Complication’

Oklahoma’s legacy of botched executions has continued to grow, as media witnesses to the October 28, 2021 execution of John Grant (pictured) reported that Grant suffered repeated convulsions and vomited over a nearly 15-minute period after he was administered the controversial execution drug midazolam. Grant’s execution was Oklahoma’s 113^th since executions resumed in the United States in 1977 — tied with Virginia for the second most of any state during that period. It was also the state’s…

Issues

Jun 23, 2021

As More Evidence of Innocence Emerges, 34 Oklahoma Legislators Call on Governor for Investigation of Death-Row Prisoner Richard Glossip’s Conviction

Following additional revelations that Richard Glossip (pictured) may be innocent of the murder that sent him to Oklahoma’s death row in 1998, a bipartisan group of 34 state legislators are calling upon Governor Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to conduct an independent investigation into Glossip’s case. 28 Republican and six Democratic legislators — including many who are supporters of the death penalty — sent a letter to Stitt and the Board on May 17, 2021 advocating for…

Issues

New Voices

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Sep 30, 2020

NEW VOICES: Oklahoma Legislator Says Get the Death Penalty Right or Don’t Do It

A self-described tough-on-crime Oklahoma state representative says has serious doubts as to the reliability of the Sooner State’s death penalty. “As taxpayers and voters,” Republican State Representative Kevin McDugle (pictured) writes in a September 5, 2020 commentary in the Tulsa World, “we are all participating in this decision to kill — each of us has a finger on the needle that injects the poison. … These are life-and-death decisions that must be made with life-and-death accuracy.”

Executions

May 07, 2020

Executions Remain On Hold as Federal Litigation on Oklahoma’s ‘Risky and Incomplete’ Lethal-Injection Protocol Moves Forward

Oklahoma will not seek to carry out any executions while litigation continues in federal court on the state’s lethal-injection protocol, a U.S. federal district court judge has announced. At a May 5, 2020 hearing on the Oklahoma death-row prisoners’ execution lawsuit, Judge Stephen Friot (pictured) of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma ordered state officials to disclose details of plans to train corrections officers to carry out executions, setting a June 5 deadline…

Executions

State by State

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Mar 02, 2020

Oklahoma Prisoners Challenge New Execution Protocol in Federal Court

Less than two weeks after Oklahoma officials announced that the state would return to the same controversial three-drug execution protocol implicated in a series of botched executions in 2014 and 2015, the state’s death-row prisoners have asked a federal court to reactivate their lawsuit challenging the state’s execution process. The February 27, 2020 filing in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma called the new protocol “incomplete” and said it failed to comply…

Issues

New Voices

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Aug 15, 2018

Fox Commentator: Oklahoma “Frontier Justice” Has Produced “Wretched Record” of Wrongful Capital Convictions

Calling Oklahoma “the notorious home of ‘Hang ’Em High’ executions,” conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin (pictured) has urged the state to adopt sytemic reforms to address its “wretched record on wrongful convictions.” Malkin says that despite 35 exonerations in the last 25 years — including 7 death-row exonerations — and a “reign of prosecutorial terror and forensic error by the late Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy and rogue Oklahoma City police department…

Executions

Botched Executions

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May 20, 2016

Oklahoma Grand Jury Issues Report Detailing “Blatant Violations” of the State’s Execution Protocol

Following seven months of investigation into the causes of Oklahoma’s botched execution of Charles Warner using an unauthorized execution drug and its near-execution of Richard Glossip with the same wrong drug, an Oklahoma grand jury issued a report on May 19 identifying a wide range of what it characterized as “negligent,” “careless,” and in some instances “reckless” conduct by state officials that deviated from the state’s execution protocol. The state’s three-drug execution protocol called…

Executions

Botched Executions

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Apr 14, 2016

Oklahoma Knew It Had Used Unauthorized Drug Months Before It Aborted Richard Glossip’s Execution

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections knew it had used an unauthorized drug in the execution of Charles Warner nearly six months before it almost repeated the mistake in the aborted execution of Richard Glossip. Oklahoma executed Warner on January 15, 2015. Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveal that three months later, in April, the state medical examiner submitted a report to the Department on Warner’s autopsy, showing that he had been executed using potassium acetate, in violation of…