TULSA, Okla. — Richard Glossip’s defense team thought the tide had turned a month ago when Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond motioned to vacate his conviction.
Then on April 26, the Oklahoma Pardon & Parole Board denied him clemency in a 2-2 deadlocked vote, allowing his may 18th execution date to go forward unless the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to step in.
Friday, it did just that.
The document that lets Glossip continue his fight came from Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who ruled that the stay of execution is granted pending the disposition of two petitions filed by the defense team, led by Don Knight.
“The State of Oklahoma has declared that Richard Glossip did not receive a fair trial," Knight told 2 News Reporter Samson Tamijani. "I’m thankful that the United States Supreme Court is taking this seriously because without their help at this point in time, the state was scheduled to kill a guy who didn’t receive a fair trial. And I don’t think there’s any Oklahoman anywhere that would think it’s okay to punish someone after they had not received a fair trial.”
AG Drummond offered this brief statement:
“I am very grateful to the U.S. Supreme Court for their decision to grant a stay of execution. I will continue working to ensure justice prevails in this important case.”
“It just tells me that they’re looking at this case very seriously,” said Broken Arrow State Rep. Kevin McDugle, who has long called Glossip’s conviction flawed at best.
Rep. McDugle also met with Glossip, his wife and his defense team just before the stay was granted Friday.
“Any level-headed person that looks at this case can see all the errors. At the very least, they’re going to send him back for a new trial, and I personally don’t believe they even have enough to put him in prison anymore if they do a new trial.”
Knight also believes a new trial is a reasonable possibility, but reasserts their fight is far from over.
“There are other things the court can do without doing that," Knight said.
"They can simply overturn the conviction without any kind of presentation from us. Or they can simply deny the writs as well and say, ‘We’ve decided. We’ve looked it over, and we don’t think there’s anything here,’ and deny it and the execution date would go back on. So that’s why I say we can’t get ahead of ourselves here. As we say in Colorado, we can’t get out over our skis.”
2 News also contacted the Office of Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has avoided giving clear opinions on the Glossip case.
His team said they had no comment to offer.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
