RICHARD GLOSSIP
OKLAHOMA
Richard Glossip sits on Oklahoma’s death row despite maintaining his innocence for more that 23 years. He has endured three scheduled executions, the most recent of which, on September 30, 2015, was not postponed until 45 minutes after he was scheduled to die. He was convicted of the first-degree murder of hotel owner Barry Van Tresse in 1997. Glossip was charged with hiring Justin Sneed to commit the crime. Sneed admitted to the killing but avoided the death penalty by implicating Glossip. However, author of Dead Man Walking and anti-death penalty advocate, Sr. Helen Prejean, believes her friend, Richard, is innocent. There is plenty of evidence to back up this belief, which Glossip's lawyer, Don Knight, pointed out in an extremely detailed request for case documents. Knight has been requesting information from Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater for years, with no response. This latest attempt is proving no different. All the withheld evidence in Glossip's case sparks serious doubt about his involvement in this crime. Knight concludes his letter to Prater saying, “If you are confident in your evidence and it is unassailable, as it should be to support the execution of a citizen of Oklahoma, there is nothing to be gained from refusing to reveal it now.”
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