[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----OKLA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Sept. 8


OKALHOMA:

URGE PAROLE BOARD TO RECONSIDER CLEMENCY


Richard Glossip is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on 16 September. The 
case against him is
circumstantial and he maintains his innocence. The parole board voted against 
clemency in 2014. It
should reconsider that decision.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format, including case 
information,
addresses and sample messages.

Richard Glossip, now 52, was sentenced to death in July 1998 for the murder of 
Barry Van Treese,
whose body was found on 7 January 1997 in one of the rooms of the motel he 
owned in Oklahoma City.
At the trial, Justin Sneed, who worked as a maintenance man in return for a 
free room in the motel,
confessed to killing the victim but said that Richard Glossip, the manager of 
the motel, had asked
him to do it. Justin Sneed testified against Richard Glossip in order to avoid 
the death penalty and
is serving a life sentence. In 2001, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals 
granted Richard Glossip
a new trial because his legal representation at trial had been “so ineffective 
that we have no
confidence that a reliable adversarial proceeding took place”. The Court noted 
that there was no
forensic evidence against Richard Glossip and that the “only direct evidence” 
linking him to the
murder was Justin Sneed’s trial testimony, and that “no compelling evidence 
corroborated Sneed’s
testimony”.

Richard Glossip was re-tried in 2004 and again convicted and sentenced to 
death. The case against
him remained circumstantial. The prosecution argued that Justin Sneed was 
dependent on Richard
Glossip and Sneed testified that Glossip had offered him US $10,000 to kill 
Barry Van Treese. In
2007, the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that there was adequate evidence to 
corroborate Justin
Sneed’s testimony, including evidence that Richard Glossip had made attempts to 
conceal the body
from discovery, was intending to leave the area, and had some US $1,200 in his 
possession which he
could not account for. The federal District Court judge who denied his habeas 
corpus petition in
2010 nevertheless wrote that “The State’s case against petitioner hinged on the 
testimony of one
witness, Justin Sneed, petitioner’s accomplice, who received a life sentence in 
exchange for his
testimony. Unlike many cases in which the death penalty has been imposed, the 
evidence of
petitioner’s guilt was not overwhelming.”

In October 2014, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted unanimously against 
clemency. At the
hearing, Richard Glossip maintained his innocence, asserting that he neither 
planned nor
participated in Barry Van Treese’s murder. The governor cannot commute a death 
sentence without a
recommendation to do so from the Board, but she does have the authority to 
grant a 60-day reprieve.
Last month, Governor Mary Fallin issued a statement that “Postponing his 
execution an additional
sixty days does nothing but delay justice for the family of Mr. Van Treese”.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

A judge who dissented from the 2007 decision of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal 
Appeals to uphold
Richard Glossip’s conviction and death sentence argued that Richard Glossip had 
been denied a fair
trial when the prosecution was allowed to post summaries of witness testimony 
around the courtroom
and to leave them there until the end of the guilt stage, which “placed undue 
and unfair emphasis on
this summarized testimony”, allowed witnesses to learn about earlier testimony, 
and the prosecution
effectively to make a continuous closing argument. The judge also argued that 
Richard Glossip had
been denied an “informed consideration of his claims on appeal” when the judge 
refused to order
these exhibits preserved or digitally photographed. However, in 2013 the US 
Court of Appeals for the
10th Circuit concluded that “Glossip received a fundamentally fair trial”. The 
US Supreme Court
declined to take the case.

Click here to view the full Urgent Action in Word or PDF format.

Name: Richard Glossip (m)
Issues: Death penalty, Imminent execution, Legal concern
UA: 192/15 Issue Date: 7 September 2015
Country: USA

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!

EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 192/15" in the subject 
line, and include in the
body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent,

OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office 
if taking action after
the appeals date. If you receive a response from a government official, please 
forward it to us at
uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in English or your own language:
  *  Calling on the Board to rehear Richard Glossip’s case and recommend 
commutation of his death
     sentence;
  *  Calling on the Governor to grant a 60-day reprieve and to urge the Board to 
reconsider clemency;
  *  Noting the circumstantial nature of the case against Richard Glossip and 
that the key evidence
     against him was the testimony of the person who killed the victim, 
testimony given to avoid the
     death penalty;
  *  Explaining that you are not seeking to downplay the seriousness of the 
crime or the suffering
     caused.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 16 SEPTEMBER 2015 TO:

Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board PO Box 53448, Oklahoma City, OK 73152, USA
Fax: 011 1 405 602-6437
Email: contact.us at ppb.ok.gov Salutation: Dear Board members





Governor Mary Fallin
Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., Room 212 Oklahoma City, OK 
73105, USA
Fax: 011 1 405 521-3353
Salutation: Dear Governor

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link found at the very bottom of this email. Thank you for your activism!

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USA:

Judge Wolf will not recuse himself from death penalty sentencing of Gary Lee 
Sampson


Senior US District Judge Mark Wolf will not recuse himself from the upcoming 
death penalty sentencing of spree killer Gary Sampson.

In court documents released on Tuesday, Judge Wolf said he was not biased or 
prejudiced in Sampson case, and that his recusal was not required.

In June, Judge Wolf said he had just been helping a friend when he took part in 
a Martha's Vineyard panel discussion of the independent film, "The Life and 
Mind of Mark DeFriest."

His participation on that panel with famed Harvard Law Professor Allan 
Dershowitz almost had Judge Wolf removed the Sampson's trial.

The issue: The panel also featured Dr. James Gilligan, now set to be one of 
Sampson's defense witnesses.

Judge Wolf said he did not know Dr. Gilligan was a potential defense witness 
until last September.

The Government later produced four Sampson court filings, all of them dated 
before September 2014, which contain Dr. Gilligan's name.

(source: MyFoxBoston.com)

******************

Lawyers argue alleged juror misconduct in death penalty case


Attorneys for a man sentenced to death for the 2003 killing of a University of 
North Dakota student are questioning witnesses about allegations of juror 
misconduct.

A jury in 2006 convicted Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. of kidnapping and killing Dru 
Sjodin, of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. It has been nearly 4 years since 
Rodriguez's attorneys filed the federal habeas corpus motion, considered the 
last step in the appeals process.

Rodriguez's attorneys have filed court documents outlining the alleged 
wrongdoing, but those papers are sealed from public view. One juror was 
questioned Tuesday morning about being a victim of domestic abuse.

The hearing started nearly 2 hours late while technicians figured out how to 
hook up Rodriguez and one of his lawyers via video from a federal prison in 
Terre Haute, Indiana.

(source: Associated Press)

***************

see: 
http://www.denverpost.com/data/ci_28773983/executions-united-states-1977-2015-interactive

(source: Denver Post)