An appeals court agreed to halt the execution of an Oklahoma man with just hours to spare Wednesday after his attorneys asked for time to review new evidence, including a fellow inmate’s claim that he overheard the other man convicted in the case admit he acted alone.

Richard Eugene Glossip was twice convicted of ordering the killing in 1997 of Barry Van Treese, who owned the Oklahoma City motel where he worked. His co-worker, Justin Sneed, was convicted of fatally beating Van Treese and was a key prosecution witness in Glossip’s trials.

Glossip, 52, was scheduled to be executed at 3pm. But the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals agreed to delay the lethal injection after Glossip’s attorneys said they had new evidence. Among the material is a signed affidavit from another inmate, Michael Scott, who claims he heard Sneed say “he set Richard Glossip up, and that Richard Glossip didn’t do anything”.

The court said it granted the temporary stay “due to Glossip’s last-minute filing and in order for this court to give fair consideration” to his claims. The court rescheduled his execution for 30 September.

State attorney general Scott Pruitt, who argued that Glossip’s execution should take place Wednesday, said he’s confident the appeals court will not find any new evidence worthy of overturning Glossip’s death sentence.

Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin said she will respect whatever decision the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals makes as it reviews evidence. In a statement, Fallin reiterated that Glossip’s case should be decided in court, not by popular opinion.

Oklahoma department of corrections director Robert Patton briefly addressed media gathered at the prison for the execution. He said he was informed by his general counsel of the delay and that prison officials were “shutting down” the execution procedures.

Patton said prison officials also notified Glossip’s family that the execution had been stayed. Glossip’s daughter, Ericka Glossip-Hodge, told the Associated Press she and several family members were driving to the prison in McAlester when she learned her father’s execution had been stayed.

Glossip-Hodge says they had to get off the road and pull over. She says, “everybody is freaking out. We’re really excited.”

“A little time is better than none,” his daughter told News9 CBS.



Glossip’s case garnered international attention after Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon, who played a nun in the movie Dead Man Walking, took up his cause. The woman Sarandon portrayed in the movie, anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, has served as Glossip’s spiritual adviser and frequently visited him in prison.

Outside the prison, supporters including Prejean celebrated the stay. “If the state of Oklahoma did not execute Richard Glossip today they won’t ever execute him. I can promise you that” Prejean told News9.



Sister @helenprejean meets with part of Glossip's defense team for first time following stay. pic.twitter.com/TjhcbFaDhH — Phil Cross (@philsnews) September 16, 2015

During his trials, prosecutors alleged that Glossip masterminded the killing because he was afraid Van Treese was about to fire him for embezzling money and poorly managing the motel. Sneed, a handyman at the motel who admitted killing Van Treese with a baseball bat, was sentenced to life in prison in exchange for his testimony against Glossip.

Two juries convicted Glossip and sentenced him to death. His execution was set to be the first in Oklahoma since a sharply divided US supreme court upheld the state’s three-drug lethal injection formula in June.

Glossip’s was to be the second execution carried out in the state’s new $100,000 death chamber, which was redesigned last October after the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. A review of Lockett’s death determined that bad lighting, poor training and miscommunication contributed to the 43-minute execution process.



The first carried out in the new chamber was Charles Warner in January. A week after Warner’s death, the US supreme court granted an appeal brought by him, Glossip and two other death row inmates over the state’s three-drug execution cocktail.

Glossip, 52, was the lead plaintiff in a case before the nation’s high court that argued the sedative midazolam violated the US constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment because it didn’t adequately render an inmate unconscious before the second and third drugs were administered. The justices upheld the formula in a 5-4 opinion issued in June.

The state said Glossip had already eaten a last meal on Tuesday, but that he’ll have his normal breakfast and lunch Wednesday. Watkins says Glossip’s last meal was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and a dinner roll from Chili’s; two orders of fish and chips from Long John Silver’s; and a strawberry malt and Baconator cheeseburger from Wendy’s.

On Tuesday, Glossip maintained his innocence during a brief telephone interview with the Associated Press. He said he hoped his life would be spared, and that he remained optimistic.









