As Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Richard Glossip’s Fourth Execution Date Approaches, He Begs For Kindness

Death row inmate Richard Glossip’s attorneys on Friday filed a clemency petition with the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole.

Glossip's lawyer and lawmakers are pushing for clemency after the 59-year-old, who is accused of playing a role in the murder of his boss in 1997, had his execution delayed three times, reported Fox News. He has spent 25 years in jail for his murder-for-hire conviction and maintains his innocence to this day.

His next death date is set for Sept. 22, and Glossip's attorney, Don Knight, said in a Friday statement that the clock is "ticking down for Richard Glossip." Knight shared that more than 40% of the legislature and many Oklahomans are concerned that the "State will be executing an innocent man." He feels that it is not too late to save his client, and they hope that this "appeal to the pardons board members for clemency will be heard, forwarded to the Governor, and acted on."

The petition stated that Glossip, who was sentenced to death in the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, "had no prior criminal record and has been a model prisoner for over 25 years while he has maintained his innocence." It noted that the death row inmate is currently facing his fourth execution date while Justin Sneed, whom Glossip's lawyers allege is the "real killer…is serving a life sentence for the same crime."

According to prosecutors, the inmate killed Treese, the owner of a motel where Glossip worked as a manager, by convincing a maintenance worker, Justin Sneed, who was 19 at the time, to execute his killing. As for Sneed, he is currently serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to beating Treese to death with a baseball bat in a room at the Oklahoma City motel. He testified that he killed Treese, but only after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000 for the murder.

As many as 62 Oklahoma state legislators, including 46 Republicans who are largely in favor of the death penalty, requested an evidentiary hearing for Glossip. It was based on a 340-page report from the Reed Smith law firm alleging the death sentence and the murder-for-hire conviction are unsubstantiated. The death row inmate was wrongly accused after an investigator allegedly convinced Sneed to incriminate Glossip in his testimony, Knight, advocates for Glossip, Republican Oklahoma state Representative Kevin McDugle and other Oklahoma state legislators claimed.

In an interview with NPR, McDugle said that three years ago, he was introduced to this case. Someone told him that Glossip was innocent and on death row, and "I didn't believe them." But he started looking into it, and he watched a series called "Killing Richard Glossip." He thought that if even 10% of this is true, "we may have a guy on death row here in Oklahoma that's innocent." So he started digging in, and he saw "zero evidence that this guy actually had anything to do with the murder."