In Oklahoma, a hearing on Richard Glossip’s post-conviction legal proceedings was delayed this month after Judge Heather Coyle, who was presiding over the case, recused herself at the request of Glossip’s lawyers, Radio Oklahoma News Network reported. The defense didn’t offer an explanation for the request, according to Radio Oklahoma News. The hearing was rescheduled for next month, with Judge Kathryn Savage, a former prosecutor and assistant attorney general, presiding, the station reported. Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, the owner of an Oklahoma motel where Glossip worked. The actual killer was Justin Sneed, a motel maintenance worker who admitted to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. But in a plea bargain, Sneed testified that Glossip was the mastermind of the murder and had offered him $10,000 to kill Van Treese. In February, Glossip was granted a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that in his first trial, prosecutors knowingly allowed false testimony to be admitted, resulting in his death sentence.
In Alabama, the Department of Corrections announced earlier this month that the execution of David Lee Roberts, scheduled for August 21, was temporarily stayed while the state Department of Mental Health completes its evaluation of whether Roberts is competent to be executed, WBRC 6 News reported. The Marion County Circuit first stayed the execution in July. The 59-year-old Roberts was sentenced to death for the 1992 killing of Annetra Jones by the presiding judge after the jury voted 7 – 5 for a sentence of life in prison, AL.com reported.
In Florida, Orlando Circuit Court Judge Leticia Marques granted William Thomas Zeigler, who has been on the state’s death row longer than any other person, an evidentiary hearing on his 50-year-old case, “based on the results of [recent] DNA testing.” WESH 2 reported in January that Zeigler’s legal team revealed in an interview that “After a joint investigation in which the state attorney’s office was fully engaged and rigorous DNA testing using new science and techniques, we believe we have developed the evidence that conclusively shows that Tommy Zeigler is an innocent man.” Zeigler was convicted and sentenced to death in July 1976 for the murder of his wife and her parents, and a life sentence for the murder of a fourth person in December 1975. The hearing is scheduled for December 1.
In Massachusetts last month, three First Circuit Court of Appeals judges denied a request by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers to remove the judge overseeing the review of Tsarnaev’s death sentence because, in August of last year, the judge discussed the case on a radio program, WCVB 5 reported. Tsarnaev was sentenced to death for his involvement, with his brother, in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds of others. According to WCVB, the panel denied the request because “the argument was deemed insufficient.” Now Tsarnaev’s lawyers are asking for an en banc hearing, which would require all ten of the First Circuit judges to consider removing Judge George A. O’Toole, Boston 25 News reported.