Supreme Court Stays Execution of Death Row Inmate Richard Glossip
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court granted a stay of execution on Friday to Richard Glossip, a death row inmate in Oklahoma, after the state’s attorney general, Gentner F. Drummond, a Republican, told the justices that he agreed that Mr. Glossip’s execution should be halted.
In a rare move, Mr. Drummond wrote that the state had “come to the difficult but essential conclusion that Glossip’s capital conviction is unsustainable and a new trial imperative.”
Lawyers call such statements “confessions of error,” and courts ordinarily give them great weight. The stay issued by the Supreme Court will remain in place while the justices decide whether to hear Mr. Glossip’s appeal, and if they do, until they decide it.
As is customary in rulings on stay applications, the court provided no reasoning. There were no public dissents. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch recused himself from the case but did not say why.
Source: The New York Times
