TULSA, Okla. — Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt is explaining why he temporarily stayed the execution of death row inmate Richard Glossip for 60 days after issuing an executive order Tuesday.
Glossip’s case and pending execution has received national attention because Glossip only ordered the murder he was convicted for, but another man actually carried out the killing.
FOX23 News asked Stitt during a public appearance on Tuesday if him granting a stay of execution demonstrated that Stitt himself had doubts about Glossip’s sentence and even conviction.
“I didn’t want to put the victims family or Glossip through two simultaneous clemency hearings,” Stitt told FOX23. “There’s a pending case before Pardon and Parole, and there’s a pending case before the Court of Criminal Appeals. We need to let that process work.”
Stitt said his order was not him taking a side, but he wanted to allow for all of the necessary appeals to take place instead of rushing to put Glossip to death.
Stitt did not say if he had formed an opinion of Glossip’s fate, but instead said, he wanted to wait to see how things would play out in these next few weeks and months.
“We’ll see what the Court of Criminal Appeals says,” Stitt said. “If they kick it back down, it will go through the normal clemency process, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
Glossip was set to be executed September 22nd, but the new order gives Glossip a new execution date of December 8th, 17 days after the stay expires.