McALESTER, Okla. — Death row inmate Richard Glossip described Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court order suspending his impending execution as “so unbelievable.”
“I’ve felt amazing today,” Glossip said hours after he heard the news, sounding elated and buoyed by hope.
Glossip laughed easily during a conversation with The Huffington Post, talking excitedly about reconnecting with family and learning just how far news of his case has spread around the world. The Associated Press characterized the Supreme Court’s decision as one that “came as no surprise,” to which Glossip said, “Unless it’s your life on the line, you don’t know how heavy it is.”
Glossip, who has been on Oklahoma’s death row for 17 years, was scheduled to die Thursday by lethal injection. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to take up a case involving Glossip and two other Oklahoma death row inmates, who claim their state’s lethal injection method is unconstitutional and amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Glossip’s fate remained in limbo until Wednesday’s announcement.
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Earlier this month, the Supreme Court declined to stay the execution of Charles Warner, another Oklahoma death row inmate. “My body is on fire,” Warner, the first to be killed since Lockett, said after he was injected.
Meanwhile, in the wake of Wednesday’s news, Glossip and his supporters said they won’t stop fighting.
“I’m hoping this victory for Richard shows how horribly broken the system is,” Prejean said. “And that it takes death off the table as an option that government can exercise over its citizens.”
Learn more about Glossip’s case here, and hear him discuss his situation in his own words below:
