Oklahoma is begging the Supreme Court not to make it kill a man

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 191 points – Oklahoma is begging the Supreme Court not to make it kill a man
vox.com

The case against Richard Glossip fell apart. Even the state’s Republican attorney general says he should not be executed. The Supreme Court may not care.

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear Glossip v. Oklahoma, a long-simmering death penalty case where the state’s Republican attorney general is urging the justices not to make his state kill a man after the prosecution’s case completely fell apart.

Last May, the Court temporarily blocked Richard Glossip’s execution, after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond informed the Court that “the State of Oklahoma recently made the difficult decision to confess error and support vacating the conviction of Richard Glossip.”

Among other things, a committee of state lawmakers commissioned a law firm to investigate whether Glossip, who was convicted for allegedly hiring a coworker to kill his boss in 1997, received a fair trial. The firm released a 343-page report laying out many errors in the process that ended in Glossip being sentenced to die:

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Oklahoma’s highest criminal court denied the request to toss out Glossip’s execution, claiming a crucial piece of new evidence undermining his conviction “does not create a reasonable probability that the result of the proceeding would have been different.” The state parole board split 2-2 on whether to grant relief to Glossip, with one member recused because his wife helped prosecute Glossip.

Meanwhile, while Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) twice postponed Glossip’s execution, he’s more recently signaled that he intends to defer to the courts’ determination of whether this man should be executed.

Remember folks, the cruelty is the point

The fact that someone actually rescued themselves for conflict of interest is quite possibly the most outstanding bit from this story.

Not necessarily. That decision still condemned him.

Twice postponed? That's cruel and unusual right there. Mock execution is literally top of the list for torturing prisoners.