Court halts execution of Oklahoma man who maintains innocence
Update 1:26 p.m.: The court has halted Glossip's execution after his lawyers said they had new evidence. Our original article appears below.
The state of Oklahoma is expected to proceed today with the controversial execution of Richard Glossip, a man convicted of hiring a contract killer to commit a murder in 1997.
Glossip was sentenced to death after he refused to confess to the killing he says he did not order. His case has attracted considerable attention because of the lack of physical evidence against him and contradictory statements from the confessed killer, who pointed to Glossip as the mastermind to escape being placed on death row himself.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"The Glossip case bears many of the hallmarks of the wrongful convictions that plague the death penalty system — inept defense attorneys, zero physical evidence, and the reliance on the testimony of a single person," said Marc Hyden of Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty.
Further complicating Glossip's sentence is Oklahoma's intention to execute him using the sedative midazolam, which in previous executions resulted in agonizing deaths that were dragged out for as long as two hours. In June, the Supreme Court ruled against Glossip's appeal arguing that death by midazolam constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Glossip's attorneys are seeking a 60-day reprieve to examine new evidence, but so far it has not been granted.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Octopuses could be the next big species after humans
UNDER THE RADAR What has eight arms, a beaked mouth, and is poised to take over the planet when we're all gone?
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Sudoku medium: December 23, 2024
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Crossword: December 23, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suit
Speed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments law
Speed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'
Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security law
Speed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitution
speed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidence
Speed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulations
Speed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriage
Speed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published