Death penalty action

New trial for Richard Glossip in Oklahoma

March 2025

One of the issues with the death penalty is that mistakes cannot be rectified. Once someone has been executed, they cannot be brought back to life. The case of Richard Glossip has shown that flaws in the legal process can deliver poor justice. The Supreme Court’s decision to vacate his death sentence is welcome news and the change of heart of some of the people involved is welcome.

Mr Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.

The prosecution’s star witness was Glossip’s co-defendant, Justin Sneed, who admitted to robbing and killing Van Treese but testified he only did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Mr Sneed was given a life sentence in exchange for testifying against Mr Glossip. He had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and had been taking medication, but denied it during the trial. Mr Glossip’s prosecutors knew the truth but did not correct the false evidence in the course of the trial. Mr Sneed later recanted his claim, Mr Glossip has always maintained his innocence and there was no physical evidence.

The US Supreme Court Ruling

On 25^th February, in a 5:3 decision, the US Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Mr Glossip because errors committed by prosecutors violated his constitutional rights, invoking the 14^th Amendment’s right to due process.

Response of Attorney General Gentner Drummond to US Supreme Court’s overturning of Richard Glossip’s Conviction

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to vacate Richard Glossip’s 2004 death sentence, public officials and advocates have expressed strong reactions. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond acknowledged the significance of the ruling, stating, “Our justice system is greatly diminished when an individual is convicted without a fair trial, but today we can celebrate that a great injustice has been swept away.”

While maintaining his belief that Mr. Glossip is not innocent, AG Drummond emphasized that “it is now an undeniable fact that he did not receive a fair trial.” He committed to reviewing the high court’s ruling and determining “the most appropriate course of action to ensure justice is secured for all involved” and that he would work with Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna to determine the next steps in Mr. Glossip’s case. “She and I will collaborate together with our staffs and will review the evidence with fresh eyes and interview those witnesses that would be available to us to make a determination whether we should proceed seeking again the death penalty, whether we should proceed seeking life without the opportunity for parole, or if we should proceed with a lesser charged crime.”

“Our justice system is greatly diminished when an individual is convicted without a fair trial, but today we can celebrate that a great injustice has been swept away.” (Source: Death Penalty Information Center)

Response of Don Knight, Mr Glossip’s Attorney

“We are thankful that a clear majority of the Court supports long-standing precedent that prosecutors cannot hide critical evidence from defense lawyers and cannot stand by while their witnesses knowingly lie to the jury. Today was a victory for justice and fairness in our judicial system. Rich Glossip, who has maintained his innocence for 27 years, will now be given the chance to have the fair trial that he has always been denied”.

Chair of Pardon & Parole Board speaking out against death penalty and the system in Oklahoma

Adam Luck, the former Chairman of Oklahoma’s Board of Pardons and Parole and former member of the Oklahoma Board of Corrections, is now speaking out against the death penalty in Oklahoma. Explaining his change of heart, Mr. Luck cites to his first-hand experience with flaws in Oklahoma’s capital punishment system, including botched executions, and his deep Christian faith. “Having the unique experience of voting on the life of another human being forced me to consider the implications of my faith in ways I never had before,” Mr. Luck said.

During his time as Chairman, Mr. Luck presided over clemency hearings for five death row prisoners, including Julius Jones and Bigler Stouffer, and supported clemency in each case. He also points to the alarming number of death row exonerations — at least 200 nationally, with 11 in Oklahoma alone — as evidence that the justice system condemns innocent people to death. “For a place that has more churches per capita than almost any other place in the world, to also have a greater percentage of its population behind prison walls than almost any place in the world inherently holds some contradictions.”

“I am convinced that the death penalty is deeply flawed, I am committed to working towards ending it wherever it is still practiced, and I believe conversations within the Christian faith practice will be critical in making progress towards that end.”

Action

Please write to Governor J Kevin Stitt expressing your delight at the good news that the US Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for Richard Glossip, and the hope that he will now receive justice.

Please also express concern at the miscarriage of justice which has resulted in his spending over 20 years on death row, highlighting in addition the recent statement by the former Chair of the Pardon & Parole Board regarding the death penalty itself and the serious problems with its use in Oklahoma.

You may like to include the hope that the investigations that will now be conducted might result in the conclusion that Richard Glossip is innocent and should be exonerated, with no further trial necessary.

Please send a copy of your letter to Attorney General Gentner Drummond.

Contact details:

The Honorable J Kevin Stitt

Governor of the State of Oklahoma

Oklahoma State Capitol

2300 N. Lincoln Blvd; Suite 212

Oklahoma City

OK 73105

USA.

Emails can be tried at: https://oklahoma.gov/governor/contact/general-information/contact-the-governor.html which gives access to a form.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond

Office of the Attorney General

313 NE 21^st Street

Oklahoma City

OK 73105

USA

Emails can be tried at: contact@oag.ok.gov

Sources: Death Penalty Information Center; The Hill; ABC News. Thanks also to group member Lesley for putting the elements of this post together.

March 18, 2025 0

Benefit cuts

Government plans for significant cuts to welfare payments

March 2025

The government is planning on ‘significant’ cuts to the benefit system which will affect many people who currently rely on them for their wellbeing. Cuts to benefits are popular among many people who believe that those who receive them are underserving, shirking or not really suffering from a disability. Article 22 of the Universal Declaration says that everyone has the right to social security.

The question for government, faced with funding challenges, is how to manage the ever increasing cost of the social security budget. How it is managed is a political judgement and the government has decided not to cancel the ‘triple lock’ as it’s known (a guaranteed rise in pension incomes) for example, but is planning to cut payments to those with disabilities. Many people in receipt of benefits are in work. The tone of the statements seem to be based on punitive ideas: people need to be, in this view, coerced into work. While it is true that there will be people who are ‘underserving’ of help or cheating the system, many, and probably the majority, would like to work – desperate to do so even – but health or social factors mitigate against them.

The letter below, published in the Guardian (14 March) is from the Chief Executive of Amnesty UK.

“The prime minister is right about Britain’s broken benefits system, but if the country does need to reboot the system, the government needs to respect rights while it does so. Adequate social security is not a political gift, it is a human right. Ensuring people can eat and live safely with their families and in communities is a right that the UK has committed to. However, successive governments have failed to respect and enforce those rights.

“And now, instead of using this moment to address the root causes of out-of-control costs of housing and essentials, and the resulting reliance on food banks and debt for so many people, it looks like this government is playing to the gallery and selling its reform credentials by making threats to reduce the “burden” on society of people who are ill or disabled. For so many in the UK, poverty is a political choice forced upon them. The prime minister can choose to end it”.

Sacha Deshmukh
Chief executive, Amnesty UK

March 14, 2025 3

Death penalty report

Report for mid February-March

March 2025

We are pleased to attach the latest report on this topic thanks to group member Lesley for the work on compiling it. The situation in US is mixed with the new president wanting to widen the scope of the penalty. To note as ever that China executes more than any other country but statistics are a state secret.

Report mid February – March (Word)Download

March 13, 2025 1

Refugee report: March

Government attitudes to immigration still causing problems

March 2025

The Government’s Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill is in its committee stage this week. Much interest has been shown by MPs in using the occasion to express opposition to the Home Office’s guidance on denying citizenship to “illegal” migrants, however long ago their arrival may have been. This guidance has been put forward as a gloss on the “good character requirement” for naturalisation, deeming those who arrive illegally via “dangerous journeys” to be ineligible. The SNP have put forward an amendment to obviate this ruling and the Home Affairs Select Committee have sought an explanation for the change in policy.

Brian Mathew, the Liberal Democrat MP for Melksham and Devizes, said asylum seekers should be given the ability and support to work “instead of leaving them in administrative limbo in hotels around the country costing the taxpayer millions”.

There has been concern amongst MPs also about the government’s decision to transfer some of the foreign aid budget to pay for increases in defence expenditure. This will obviously have a bearing on the amount of funding available for countries with refugee issues. According to the FT, presently it is believed that half the foreign aid budget will now go on migrant hotel accommodation.

The Home Secretary has been visiting Northern France, the first Home Secretary to do so in recent years. Yvette Cooper is bringing £172 million to aid the French authorities against people smugglers. The National Crime Agency believes that they now have a better understanding of how the boats and engines arrive on the Channel coast, mainly from Germany. Germany has now made it a crime to facilitate illegal migration to the UK.

At the same time as immigration is being targeted, the Government is increasing its deportation levels. This post by Prof. Mary Bosworth is worth reading.

The small boats continue; this year so far the numbers are 40% down on last year, but better weather will probably change the ratio. 2024 data indicate claims were up 18% on 2023, and grant rates were down from about 67% to about 47%. A particular drop in acceptances has been felt by Afghans: from around 90% agreement to around 50% (with legal routes barely used now); it has been suggested that the Home Office considers the Taliban no threat to a wide range of society now. The largest influx currently is from Sudan.

Other notes: The Guardian featured the immigration regime in Spain, where a less hostile attitude has brought economic results with arrivals able to work.The Home Office has been accused of failing to correctly assess the ages of child migrants by the Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium. And the UK is refusing to pay the £50 million compensation demanded by Rwanda for the collapsed migrant removal policy.

We are grateful to group member Andrew for producing this report.

March 13, 2025 0

And the vigils continue

The 66th vigil held in Salisbury

March 2025

The plan was to hold the final vigil a few weeks ago with the hopeful news of a cease fire and talks being held in Qatar. The recent news is far from encouraging. The death toll stands at 48,000 with more being added to most days.

The situation now has worsened considerably. Aid convoys have been stopped and today, Israel has announced that it is cutting off all electric power. Quite apart from the effects on a state with 2 million people, the desalination plants cannot operate neither can the treatment plants. These moves target the whole population and are using water, aid and now electricity as a weapon of war.

The UK has asked the Israeli government to reverse the decision saying it risks breaking international

law. The Qatari Foreign Ministry says Israel’s actions are ‘a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and of humanitarian law’.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that IDF soldiers are accused of using Palestinians as human shields a story also reported on in the Times of Israel. New rules issues by the Central Command enables soldiers to fire on Palestinians in the West Bank whether they are armed or not.

We shall be continuing our vigil and the next one is on Saturday 15th March starting at 5pm.

Main photo: Peter Gloyns

Vigil No 120 attracts strong support

The need for the vigil as strong as ever March 2026 Middle East violence continues. Over 1,000 dead as Lebanon attacked. Al Jazeera reports over 1,500 dead in Iran with many injured and 18 killed in Israel. The economics effects promise to be catastrophic with many economies under great strain if the hostilities continue. Killing…

by welland2 March 24, 2026

Rise in authoritarianism

Worrying increase in authoritarianism both sides of the Atlantic. Talk at the Exeter conference March 2026 Our rights are hard won. Britain still has elements of its feudal past. We think of ourselves as a democracy and great fuss is made of elections and polls but in many respects power is not with the majority…

by welland2 March 23, 2026March 24, 2026

Gay rights in Malawi

Speaker at the Exeter conference on the problems of LGBTQ+ rights in Malawi March 2026 We were delighted to hear first hand of the continuing problems being experienced by LGBTQ+ people in Malawi. Eric Sambisa (pictured), who is currently at the Dundee Human Rights Centre, gave a talk at the Exeter conference on these problems.…

by welland2 March 22, 2026March 22, 2026

March 10, 2025 0

Nazanin talk at Cathedral

Talk by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe inspiring for those who heard it

March 2025

UPDATE, 12 March: For those who would like to revisit the talk, the Cathedral has produced a recording, available until 17th March. 19 March: now removed.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was interviewed in Salisbury Cathedral by the Rt Revd Bishop of Sherborne, Karen Gorham, about her experiences of being imprisoned in Iran and life after her release. Unfortunately, the sound system was such that many could not hear large chunks of what was said, some claiming only being able to hear a quarter of the discussion.

The local group was pleased that the Bishop, Nazanin and her husband all mentioned the role played by Amnesty and the introducer mentioned the local group in particular.

The event was a sell-out with nearly 1,000 people in attendance. It took place on International Women’s Day.

Nazanin made the point that there was a difference between being political prisoner and a hostage.

Being a hostage brought with it a different set of rules since what the legal case was did not matter. She also said you only appreciate freedom when you don’t have it for a long time. After release she found ‘adjustment quite difficult’. For a long time she said ‘my body was free but my mind was in prison’. Even meals were difficult because she found the rush of having to eat in prison was difficult to shake off.

She discussed the Boris Johnson affair. Johnson blurted out that Nazanin was in Iran to ‘train journalists’ which was untrue: she was there on holiday. This was used by the Iranian authorities against her. It took a long time for Johnson to meet her and he failed explicitly to apologise for his error despite the effect it had on her confinement. Both have been extremely critical of the British government during her ordeal.

Richard, her husband spoke about the ‘of the kindness of strangers’ . He also spoke of the role of Amnesty and of the symbolic nature of the Amnesty logo of a candle in a coil of barbed wire.

We apologise for the partial nature of this post for reasons outside our control. Image, Amnesty International.

BlueSky

March 9, 2025 2

UN expresses deep doubts about human rights

UN High Commissioner Volker Türk expresses widespread concerns about threats to human rights

March 2024

Volker Türk, addressing the 58th Human Rights Council, has expressed a range of concerns about the state of human rights today. As we said in our last post celebrating the 50th year since the formation of the Salisbury group, any idea that we were on a slow path to a better future with wider and deeper respect for rights in countries and communities around the world, is no longer believed. Not only are old threats still in existence, but new threats are appearing and gaining ground.

He begins by something of a tour d’horizon of conflicts around the world of which there are now 130

according to the Red Cross. In addition to the familiar which appear on our screens most days, there are conflicts in the Congo, Yemen (which has dropped out of the news recently), Myanmar and Haiti. He is concerned that in each of these wars, civilians are deliberately attacked and subject to sexual violence, and famine used as weapons of war.

Health care workers have suffered grievously and in 2023, 480 were killed, double the number of the previous year. Humanitarian workers are also being killed with 356 dying in 2024.

The new threat comes from individuals and corporations which have never had so much control and influence over our lives as they do today. This is something of a new phenomenon which has emerged in the last two decades or so. “A handful of unelected tech oligarchs have our data: they know where we live, what we do, our genes and our health conditions, our thoughts, our habits, our desires and our fears. They know us better than we know ourselves“. Several of these ‘techbros’ as they are called played a significant role in the recent US presidential election. Either by manipulating their algorithms, by direct financial aid or in the case of Jeff Bezos, his control over the Washington Post, they were able to play a hugely influential part in the result.

Unregulated power

Türk says that any form of unregulated power can lead to oppression, subjugation, and even tyranny – the playbook of the autocrat. We should be very concerned at the activities of the tech companies. Virtually all are American based and as we have seen in the last few days, the post-war consensus has been shattered by the new administration’s statements and policy changes.

President Putin of Russia, a demonstrable tyrant, who’s regime has murdered journalists and sent Navalny to a remote Siberian camp where he subsequently died for reasons unknown, is now being courted by the US president Donald Trump even having invaded Ukraine.

Governments seem unwilling or unable to control the companies’ activities. One by one, the companies have dropped their internal controls used to moderate content. A prime example of the effects – the murderous effects – of the tech companies was Myanmar. Hate speech and posts against religious minorities was widely spread on Facebook leading to considerable violence. Facebook was slow to remove posts and did so only after much damage was done.

Speed and scale of mis and disinformation can have dramatic and far reaching effects on people’s lives and rights. The tech companies have shown a remarkable lack of concern to control the content on their sites. They exhibit an almost mystical belief in their platforms and with the current belief in America in liberty and free speech absolutism, the risks for ordinary people are considerable. They cannot be voted out except by shareholders whose concern is profits not the effects their platforms might have.

We should be very concerned that a group of American companies, closely aligned to the politics of the White House, are able to have profound influence over the lives of millions yet are subject to almost no controls, certainly not from outside the US.

March 5, 2025 1

The Amnesty tree

Salisbury group assembles to mark planting of its tree

March 2025

Last year (2024) marked the fifty years since the group was founded and here we are, still going strong if sadly the only group left in Wiltshire. We had the opportunity for a tree to be planted in honour of this anniversary and today (4 March) some of the local group assembled for a photograph in Victoria Park. We were delighted to welcome two surviving members who formed the group half a century ago.

The need to keep human rights issues on the agenda is needed now more than ever. It was perhaps the belief all those years ago that the need for a human rights group would slowly melt away in the wake of the post war ideal of the new world order following WWII. This has not been the case. Rights are being slowly chipped away at home as governments have not liked protest groups drawing attention to their climate and environment failings and continued arming of Israel for example. The previous government introduced several pieces of legislation reducing rights, increasing police powers and limiting access to justice. The new government shows little inclination to repeal them. Some MPs – including both our local ones – generally vote against human rights matters according to the They Work for You website.

Overseas – well, where to start. China continues to persecute the Uyghurs and western firms continue to buy cotton produced by effectively slave labour. War and destruction continues in Sudan and other parts of sub Sahara Africa. The situation in Burma continues with the military attacking people and villages of minority groups. We continue to sell them jet fuel to enable them to carry on. The terrible death toll continues in Gaza.

So the need to keep the spotlight on human rights is needed today as it was 50 years ago. Power, in whatever form, does not like giving it up and will go to great lengths to keep it for themselves and their supporters.

If you would like to join us you would be welcome. See a list of current and future events where you can come and make yourself known. We welcome people who want to pursue a particular human rights theme – more rights for women for example.

Photo: Salisbury Amnesty

Amnesty in Salisbury & South Wiltshire

Death penalty action

New trial for Richard Glossip in Oklahoma