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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Friday blocked Oklahoma from executing death row inmate Richard Glossip for his role in a 1997 murder-for-hire after the state's attorney general agreed Glossip's life should be spared.
While it's rare for the conservative-dominated court to put executions on hold, it's even more unusual for a prosecutor to side with the inmate.
Glossip had been scheduled to be put to death on May 18 despite statements by new Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond that Glossip did not receive a fair trial.
An Oklahoma appeals court subsequently upheld Glossip's conviction and the state's pardon and parole board deadlocked in a vote to grant him clemency.
The high court put the execution on hold indefinitely while it reviews the case. Justice Neil Gorsuch took no part in the decision, presumably because he dealt with the case earlier as an appeals court judge.
"There is nothing more harrowing than the thought of executing a man who the state now admits has never received a fair trial," Glossip attorney Don Knight said in a statement. "Our hope is that the court will reverse the decision of the (Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals) and vacate Mr. Glossip's conviction once and for all."