The district attorney of one the country’s most prolific death penalty counties is reportedly changing tactics.
At a clemency hearing for death row prisoner Richard Glossip on Wednesday, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna notified him and the parole board on Tuesday night via letter that she would be altering the criteria for what qualifies as a capital case.
“She has written to the board and outlined that she has instituted new procedures and guidelines to the governor for when her office seeks the death penalty,” said Drummond.
According to information from the Death Penalty Information Center, Oklahoma County has imposed the most death sentences of any county of its size and has carried out more than twice the executions of any other comparably sized county.
Drummond said under Behenna’s new guidelines, Glossip would no longer qualify as a capital case.
Despite Drummond’s support, as well as the support of state lawmakers who also spoke at the hearing held at the Ted Logan Conference Center in Oklahoma City, Glossip was ultimately denied clemency in a vote that didn’t feature discussion.
Board members Edward Konieczny and Calvin Prince voted for clemency. Both Konieczny and Prince were appointed to the board by Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Richard Miller and Cathy Stocker voted to deny clemency. Stocker was appointed to the board by Stitt, and Miller was appointed by the state court of appeals.
Richard Smothermon recused himself in July, saying his wife had been a prosecutor on the Glossip case.
Glossip, who has been scheduled for execution nine times and eaten three last meals, is currently set for execution at the state prison in McAlester on May 18. Glossip has long maintained his innocence in the 1997 killing of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese.
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