The US
state of Oklahoma was about to execute a man after the Supreme Court rejected a
last-ditch appeal. Minutes before the execution, the state's governor intervened
to assess the legality of the execution method.
Deutsche Welle, 1 October 2015
Oklahoma's
governor granted a last-minute stay of execution to an inmate convicted of
hiring a hit man to murder his former employer Barry van Treese, a motel owner.
The state said that it needed time to determine if its death penalty procedures
complied with court orders.
Lawyers for
Richard Glossip, 52, had argued for a stay, saying they had evidence pointing
to his innocence, but were turned down by the US Supreme Court minutes before
the scheduled start of the execution at 3 pm local time (20:00 UTC).
Governor
Mary Fallin, a Republican, said the state corrections department needed time to
address questions raised on Wednesday about Oklahoma's execution procedures and
the chemicals used for lethal injections. Glossip's execution was moved to
November 6. The state has been closely monitoring its execution methods after a
botched execution last year.
I have issued a 37 day stay for Richard Glossip while the state addresses questions about its execution protocol http://t.co/t3LVhjNn7z
— Governor Mary Fallin (@GovMaryFallin) September 30, 2015
Fallin said
that she had ordered the delay over questions regarding potassium acetate, the
last drug in the three-drug protocol used on Oklahoma's death row. Spokesman
Alex Weintz explained that the Corrections Department routinely received the
lethal drugs on the day of the execution. Prison officials had not realize they
were sent potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride until the drugs were
delivered.
A prominent
case
Glossip,
52, had been scheduled to die Wednesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in
McAlester, 200 kilometres east of state capital Oklahoma City. He would have been
the second inmate put to death on Wednesday in the United States after Georgia executed its first woman in seven decades, Kelly Gissendaner .
But his
case has kept courts across the nation busy: Glossip's initial conviction was
overturned, but he was convicted again in a 2004 retrial, which saw him
sentenced to death. The actual killer in the case, Justin Sneed, has been
serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Sneed had agreed to
a plea bargain by pleading guilty and testifying against Glossip.
Death Row inmate Richard Glossip said he was grateful for receiving the 37-day stay while the method of execution in Oklahoma was due to be reassessed |
Glossip's
execution already has been delayed twice, once when the US Supreme Court
decided to take up his drug challenge, and again two weeks ago to allow
Oklahoma courts time to review claims of new evidence that ultimately were
rejected.
Pope
Francis had personally appealed for clemency in Glossip's case.
Capital
punishment still a key social issue
Three more
inmates were scheduled to be executed in the coming week in Oklahoma, Texas and
Missouri. The overall number of executions in the United States has declined in
recent years. The 35 executions carried out in 2014 were the lowest total in
two decades.
Thirty-one
of the 50 states, plus the federal government and military, retain the option
of capital punishment for certain crimes, according to the non-governmental
Death Penalty Information Centre, which opposes the practice.
ss/bw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)
The US state of Virginia has executed a prison inmate by lethal injection. More details here http://t.co/QoPsJ02QMc pic.twitter.com/TemYW2nWzQ
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 2, 2015
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