[This is a plea from Susan Sarandon. I think it’s important enough to get the word out to as many people as possible.]
Sister Helen Prejean, who I played in “Dead Man Walking,” is fighting her every waking hour to save an innocent man Oklahoma plans to execute in just 26 days. We need your help—and we need it right now.
Sign our petition asking Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to stop the execution of Richard Glossip.
Richard is scheduled to be executed on September 16. He was convicted of murder solely on the testimony of Justin Sneed, who confessed to the murder but claimed Richard had hired him to do it—even though there is not a shred of physical evidence to support his claim. By implicating Richard, Sneed avoided the death penalty himself and is serving a life sentence in a medium-security prison.1
Ten men on death row in Oklahoma have been exonerated in the past 35 years, four of them convicted based on the false testimony of criminals who had their sentences reduced in exchange for their testimony.2
Despite this, Gov. Fallin has said the state will go ahead with the execution.3 Our only hope is that a groundswell of public outrage forces the governor to issue a 60-day reprieve—giving Richard’s pro bono lawyers time to prove his innocence.
Sneed’s own daughter wrote to the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board last October that she “strongly believe[s]” Richard is innocent. “For a couple of years now, my father has been talking to me about recanting his original testimony,” she wrote. “I feel his conscience is getting to him.”4
Decades of research and investigations show that the death penalty is discriminatory and is used disproportionately against people who are low-income (like Richard), and Black, and in cases where the victim is white.5
As Reverend Adam Leathers of Oklahoma City said, “Sixty days is a small price to pay to avoid killing an innocent man.”6
Thanks for all you do.
–Susan Sarandon
Sources:
1. “Save Richard Glossip!” Ministry Against the Death Penalty, accessed August 7, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=
2. “What Happened in Room 102: Oklahoma Prepares to Execute Richard Glossip,” The Intercept, July 9, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=
3. “Fallin says state is prepared ‘to hold [Richard Glossip] accountable,’ activists plead for his life,” The City Sentinel, August 10, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=
4. “Clemency letter from O’Ryan Justine Sneed,” Scribd, October 23, 2014
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=
5. “Death Penalty 101,” American Civil Liberties Union, accessed August 14, 2015
https://www.aclu.org/death-
6. “Fallin says state is prepared ‘to hold [Richard Glossip] accountable,’ activists plead for his life,” The City Sentinel, August 10, 2015
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=