Just 4 weeks left to stop an innocent man from being executed

In four weeks, the state of Oklahoma is scheduled to execute a man despite evidence that he is innocent.

Richard Glossip was sentenced to death for a murder that even prosecutors admit he wasn’t present for — based almost entirely on the testimony of the confessed killer. The Intercept’s team has revealed how police and prosecutors cut corners throughout the case, ignoring witnesses and evidence that supported Glossip’s innocence.

Oklahoma has spent years fighting to keep Glossip on death row — until a new attorney general reversed course and asked the state’s highest criminal court to overturn his conviction. Shockingly, the judges refused — so with Glossip’s execution still looming, our team is racing to expose this miscarriage of justice in order to save Glossip’s life.

On the verge of a grotesque execution, we’re asking our readers to make a donation to help The Intercept continue to investigate this case and expose the injustices of the death penalty in the U.S.

Glossip’s case is a shocking failure of the death penalty itself.

Oklahoma has delayed Glossip’s execution multiple times due to problems with its lethal injection protocol, which resulted in a protracted 40-minute death in 2014. Glossip took his objection to the state’s drug formula all the way to the Supreme Court but failed to convince the justices that its use was “cruel and unusual punishment.”

The Intercept was the first national news outlet to expose the weaknesses of Oklahoma’s case against Glossip, publishing an explosive investigation in July 2015 that led to an outpouring of international attention. Then new witnesses began to come forward with even more information casting doubt on Glossip’s guilt.

Our reporting found that Glossip was failed by his own lawyers, while the confessed killer, Justin Sneed, has repeatedly changed his story, on one occasion even asking about “re-canting” his testimony. Many witnesses were never contacted by police. Potentially exculpatory evidence was destroyed at the request of prosecutors.

Meanwhile, the suggestion for the killer to pin the crime on Glossip seems to have come from the police themselves. In a highly coercive interview, detectives repeatedly suggested that Glossip masterminded the killing before asking Sneed for his version of events. Video of the interrogation was never shown to a jury.

Even strong supporters of the death penalty in Oklahoma have called for Glossip’s sentence to be reexamined. But as pressure mounts, time is running out before his scheduled execution on May 18.

Our team is continuing to report on Richard Glossip’s case — and on the egregious failures that can be found throughout the U.S. death penalty system. To support our ongoing reporting, will you make a donation to The Intercept today?

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