MCALESTER, Okla., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Richard Glossip, on Oklahoma's death row, was granted a two-week stay of execution by the state's Court of Criminal Appeals Wednesday, three hours prior to his scheduled execution.
Attorneys for Glossip, who has convicted for the 1997 murder-for-hire of motel owner Barry Van Treese, filed an appeal late Tuesday after Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said that afternoon she would not grant a stay of execution.
The court responded with a stay.
"Due to Glossip's last-minute filing, and in order for this court to give fair consideration to the materials included with his subsequent application for post-conviction relief, we hereby grant an emergency stay of execution for two weeks. The execution of Richard Eugene Glossip shall be reset, without further order, for September 30, 2015," the court order read.
Glossip was to have been executed by lethal injection at 3 p.m. Wednesday, the first in Oklahoma since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed use of the drug midazolam in executions in June.
A statement from Ryan Kiesel, executive director of ACLU of Oklahoma, mentioned "gratitude to the court. For today, at least, the State of Oklahoma has avoided the execution of a man not guilty of any capital offense."
Glossip's case has received international attention, with over 270,000 signatures on an online petition to keep him from execution.
