In just a few hours, the state of Oklahoma will execute Richard Glossip, despite evidence supporting his innocence. His death is a direct result of the cowardice and callousness of many over the past 20 years, all of whom will have Richard Glossip's blood on their hands.
In 1997, Richard Glossip was arrested for the murder of Barry Von Treese, who was found dead at the motel he owned and Glossip managed. A 19-year-old man named Justin Sneed admitted to beating Von Treese to death with a baseball bat. Sneed claimed that Glossip, his boss, offered him money and employment opportunities to kill Von Treese. By pinning it on Glossip, Sneed was able to avoid the death penalty. Despite almost no additional evidence other than the murderer's testimony, Glossip was sentenced to die.
Glossip has never once veered from his claims of innocence. And over the past few years a number of witnesses have come forward to claim that Sneed was lying when he implicated Glossip. One witness was selling Sneed drugs at the time and has stated that he was a meth addict who was desperate for money. Another heard Sneed brag about lying about Glossip's involvement while incarcerated with him. Another witness heard Sneed describe the murder in detail repeatedly and never once heard him mention Glossip.
Even Sneed's own daughter has begged for Glossip to be exonorated.
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Sneed's daughter claims that her father has told her that he was lying and that Glossip is innocent.
But instead of supporting exoneration or at least a new review of evidence, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater had two of those witnesses arrested. At least one of them, Michael Scott, was arrested with guns drawn at his own home by multiple police and then subjected to interrogation, threats, and intimidation by Prater. According to The Intercept:
Scott told them that he was interrogated about his affidavit [stating that Sneed had bragged about implicating Glossip] and that the questions “seemed designed to confuse or trick” him into contradicting himself. Scott said he did not wish to speak to Prater and the investigator who accompanied him — a man by the name of Eastbrook — without a lawyer, but he also did not feel free to refuse their questions. In fact, having heard reports about people dying in police custody, Scott said, he feared he even might be harmed. According to Scott, Prater and the investigator “even asked him questions about prescription medication that his mother is taking,” which Scott says they could only know about had they conducted a search of their house.
Prater has tried to discredit the witnesses, personally and publicly. He has proclaimed that the witnesses, whom have been arrested in the past, are drug abusers and thieves and cannot be believed.
Yet Sneed is admittedly both, and was admittedly both the day that Von Treese was killed. Yet the state is murdering a man on the word of a drug abuser and thief.
Recently Sneed was interviewed again and gave yet another version of his story that did not align with the one he has been giving over the past 20 years.
Yet all signs point to the execution going forward today, on the state's third attempt to murder Glossip this year. In a heartbreaking display of barbarism, the Oklahoma Court of Appeals decided to go forward with Glossip's execution in a 3-2 decision on Monday. The two judges opposed to execution wrote in their dissents that "Glossip’s original trial was 'deeply flawed' and argued that 'the State has no interest in executing an actually innocent man.'"
None of us know what happened at the motel the day Von Treese was killed. But there is certainly no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Glossip murdered him.
But we know who will murder Richard Glossip.
A man will be killed today. He will be pinned down by other men, he will be injected with poison, he will resist, he will suffer, and he will die.