What Next: Why Richard Glossip Has Escaped Execution Nine Times

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🗓️ 9 May 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

Richard Glossip has been on death row for 26 years and stared down nine execution dates. The 1997 killing that sent him to death row has been investigated numerous times and the actual killer—who brutally bludgeoned a motel owner with a baseball bat—has even sought to recant his testimony against Glossip. Over the decades, anti-death penalty activists and a growing number of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have spoken out to save Richard Glossip. But now his case is in the Supreme Court’s hands. Guests: Liliana Segura, investigative journalist at The Intercept focused on prisons and harsh sentencing. Mark Joseph Stern, Slate senior writer covering courts and the law. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Amicus—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Make an impact this Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month by helping Macy’s on their mission to fund APIA Scholars. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:05.4	Late last week, the Supreme Court decided to spare a man's life.
1:09.8	The Supreme Court has stepped into temporarily halt the planned execution this month of an
1:14.8	Oklahoma man whose case has drawn. The justice is, the issue to stay for an Oklahoma prisoner
1:20.4	named Richard Glossep. He's been scheduled for execution nine times.
1:25.8	It's the latest development in an ongoing legal tug of war for the man convicted of killing his
1:31.0	boss, Barry Van Trees, back in 1997. This kind of intervention is so rare that when I asked Slate's
1:38.7	marches of stern, how many times he'd seen it happen, he was at a loss for words. That's a
1:44.0	rarity for him. I think the number is zero. The court today almost never stays executions.
1:54.6	Mark says it's pretty easy to see why the justices made the call they did here. The state's
1:59.6	only witness against Richard Glossep has recanted. One documentary and two independent investigations
2:06.4	have all cast doubt on his guilt. Even the Oklahoma Attorney General was behind Glossep's request.
	...

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