Update: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday granted an emergency, two-week stay of execution for death row inmate Richard Glossip, just hours before he was scheduled to die
Just days before a death row inmate's scheduled execution, Susan Sarandon makes an impassioned plea on Monday's episode of Dr. Phil to save the life of Richard Glossip, who has been on Oklahoma's death row for 17 years.
“I’m heartbroken for the state of our judicial system as much as I’m heartbroken for this man," says the Academy Award®-winning actress. "Because of the color of your skin or how much money you have, you can’t get a decent shake. It shouldn’t be that way. This is America -- we’re better than that.”
Glossip, 51, who is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, September 16, was convicted in 1998 of first-degree murder of his boss, Barry Van Treese. Glossip maintains his innocence despite being convicted and sentenced to death by two juries.
When Dr. Phil asks Sarandon how she will feel if Glossip is not granted a stay of execution, Sarandon responds: "I’ll feel ashamed and sad for us all. Not just for him. I mean, it’s hard to even put an animal down, but to put a man down? It’s just not the way we should be living our lives. It’s just wrong."
If Glossip is executed as planned, he’ll leave behind four children and two grandchildren.
Sarandon is joined on the show by Sister Helen Prejean, Glossip's spiritual adviser and the author of Dead Man Walking, whose character was played by Sarandon in the 1995 film. Prejean and Sarandon are appealing to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to grant a stay of execution based on what they call the mishandling of Glossip’s case and poor legal representation.
Prejean tells Dr. Phil about one of her conversations with Glossip earlier this year: "He goes, 'Sister Helen, I hope you don’t mind ... but I want to ask you to be with me if I’m executed.' And I will not just walk with that man, and be his spiritual adviser and hold his hand while he dies. His dying is wrong. The totally inadequate defense and no forensic evidence -- and on that Richard Glossip is sitting on death row."
Dr. Phil responds: "Well, we know in the American legal system, there are different standards of proof ... To deprive someone of their liberty in America, to deprive someone of their life in America, is and should be the highest standard you can possibly imagine. Where 12 people go in a room and there is nothing that reasonable people could disagree about. There’s no possible way they could say there’s an alternative explanation that could even be considered. And in this case, the two of you, just in the few minutes that I’m talking to you here, have presented half a dozen alternative explanations, motives, for why [the man who claimed that Glossip hired him to commit the murder] would say what he’s doing. The absence of proof that would at least be a shred of doubt. Is that not violating the moral code of beyond a reasonable doubt for taking a man’s liberty and life? Is that not?"
Prejean answers, "Of course, I wish you had been Richard’s lawyer."
Tune in to this episode of Dr. Phil on Monday, August 31 to see why Sarandon is moved to tears by Glossip's exclusive statement from death row about his impending execution -- find out where to watch here.
An all-new season of Dr. Phil premieres September 14!
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