Despite questions surrounding new evidence that could exonerate death-row inmate Richard Glossip, Oklahoma plans to murder him this afternoon.
Glossip, convicted of hiring a contract killer in 1997, is scheduled to die at 3 pm. Anti-capital punishment crusaders say new evidence shows that the man who committed the 18-year-old murder (and is serving a life sentence for it) made Glossip his scapegoat so that he could avoid a stint on death row and a state-sanctioned killing. And sadly, it appears nothing in the investigation and trial went his way.
From This Week:
“The Glossip case bears many of the hallmarks of the wrongful convictions that plague the death penalty system — inept defense attorneys, zero physical evidence, and the reliance on the testimony of a single person,” said Marc Hyden of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.
Further complicating Glossip’s sentence is Oklahoma’s intention to execute him using the sedative midazolam, which in previous executions resulted in agonizing deaths that were dragged out for as long as two hours. In June, the Supreme Court ruled against Glossip’s appeal arguing that death by midazolam constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
That sounds like a textbook example of cruel and unusual punishment. And it appears that Oklahoma and Gov. Mary Fallin, who nixed a 60-day reprieve yesterday, just want Glossip dead, no matter what. It blows the mind.
There is not much time. Please step up, call Fallin at 405-521-2342, and demand a stay of the execution so the new evidence may be reviewed. Get busy, do it now: Killing time is 3 pm.
Let me add a thought from anti-death penalty angel Sister Helen Prejean:
[Fallin] has tied herself to the machinery of death and is unable to break free. While I firmly believe Richard is innocent, I can understand those who say he hasn’t proven his innocence. Proving you didn’t do something is a very high bar. But I do not believe anyone can look at the information that has emerged in the past month and say “I don’t have a single doubt about his guilt.” When you strap someone to a gurney and force killing drugs into his veins (drugs that in the past have led to horribly botched executions) that is something you MUST be able to say.
I believe state-sanctioned killing is always immoral, but even if one disagrees, how can new evidence be ignored? Why the rush? If the slightest chance exists that an inmate is innocent, how does any decent human or entity proceed with an execution?
Take action NOW. Be part of the solution or share Mary Fallin’s bloody hands.
