I am writing to you regarding Richard Glossip, who is scheduled to be executed on September 16, 2015 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the murder-for-hire plot of Barry Van Treese. In exchange for his testimony, Sneed avoided a death sentence of his own and now lives in a medium security prison. Dr. Phil McGraw, of the syndicated television show “Dr.Phil”, recently dedicated a full-hour of his show to Sarandon and well known anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean so they could discuss the circumstances around Glossip’s murder-conviction and pending execution.
Advertisement
The case also exposes one of the recurring, and highly objectionable, aspects of the death penalty: It falls disproportionately on those with limited means (and on people of color although in this case Glossip is white).
This is crap. This is a B*** S*** PR campaign.
Two journalists and an outspoken death penalty opponent are among the execution witnesses for condemned Oklahoma inmate Richard Eugene Glossip.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told NewsChannel 4 that Glossip’s attorney reached out to him about new evidence, but he says he did not receive any documents. “Later I learned this was because the maintenance man (Sneed) broke into cars at the motel parking lot and stole items from the vehicle”. Justin Sneed, a handyman at the motel the victim owned, confessed to killing Van Treese.
They also claimed police interrogated Sneed with techniques proven to elicit false statements, and said witnesses testified he had a bad drug habit. Detective Bob Bemo said to Sneed, later introducing Glossip as a snitch.
He claimed his boss, Glossip, ordered the then 19-year-old to do it. There was, however, no physical evidence corroborating Sneed’s accusation.
Another affidavit produced on Monday was from Michael Scott, who spent time in the cell across from Sneed and claims to have heard Sneed admit to making up testimony. The juror felt he should speak now because of all this recent attention on Glossip. There is probable cause to believe that mistakes were made in the wrongful prosecution of Richard Glossip, including failure to obtain adequate counsel during his trials.
Advertisement
Fallon’s office has so far consistently denied efforts to secure a stay of execution.
