Katherine Flores: Don't put an innocent man to death

Summary: Richard Glossip is set to be executed in October for the 1997 murder of motel owner, Barry Van Treese in Oklahoma. However, Sister Helen Prejean ministers to prisoners on death row and is convinced Glossip is innocent. She is making a case to stop an injustice from occurring. According to this article, the jury's decision was skewed due to some information not being revealed until now that could possibly prove the innocence of this man. In addition, the case was said to have not had strong evidence to incriminate Glossip at the time. He was arrested only because the person who actually murdered Barry, Justin Sneed, claimed Glossip offered him money to kill the motel owner. The jury believed Justin. However, this new evidence just might make them have to reevaluate their decision. If you take into account how many times Sneed's version of the story at different times contradicts itself, then it is impossible for him to be viewed as a reliable witness. Also, Sneed's taped confession wasn't shown in court and in the video, you can see the police really pressing Justin to answer if the involvement of Glossip was his idea only or not. It is also possible that his motive could've been to get money to buy drugs since apparently he had just gotten off a two day meth run when he killed Barry. His motive makes a lot more sense than the motive the jury tried to puzzle together for Glossip. Finally, evidence such as a shower curtain and duct tape that were just found, only had Sneed's fingerprints, not Glossip's. All of this points to the fact that this case was clearly not investigated to its fullest potential and because of it, an innocent man might be killed soon.

Analysis: I believe that Sister Helen Prejean has a point. There was much evidence that was overlooked during this investigation. Evidence that could've probably helped out Glossip and also discredited anything Justin Sneed claimed. I feel this shows that our court system is very flawed and because of that innocent men get convicted of crimes they didn't commit. In the end, it just isn't fair and it violates our constitutional ideals.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/12/opinions/prejean-glossip-case/index.html