SILVER SPRING, Md.,
April 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/
-- Is the state of Oklahoma
about to execute an innocent man? That chilling question is at the
heart of Investigation Discovery's (ID) all-new real-time
documentary series, KILLING RICHARD
GLOSSIP, created and directed by acclaimed filmmaker
Joe Berlinger. As new developments
come to light in Richard Glossip's
case, ID announced today it has greenlit a fifth episode of the
docu-series that is in production now and will air later in 2017.
The first four episodes are set to premiere exclusively on ID in a
two-night event beginning tonight, Monday, April 17 at 9/8c. The new installment
will pick up where the series leaves off.
"With our cameras capturing both the work of Glossip's legal
team as well as our own investigation, we have documented several
important new discoveries and leads that are critical to
Richard Glossip's legal case," said
Berlinger. "As the clock ticks down to what could be the final days
of Glossip's life, we are gratified that ID will air a fifth
episode later this spring to give viewers – and the State of Oklahoma – the latest developments on
this ever-evolving case, and to provide deeper exploration into
some of the leads uncovered in the first four episodes, in order to
help prevent a tragic miscarriage of justice."
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP
follows the story of two men convicted of murder – one on death
row, and the other sentenced to life without parole – who give two
very different accounts of what led to the slaying of Barry Van Treese on January 7, 1997 at the Best Budget Inn in
Oklahoma City. Richard Glossip, a man with no prior felony
convictions, has consistently maintained his innocence, insisting
that he had no knowledge that anyone planned to kill Van Treese. Justin
Sneed, who admitted to killing the victim and whose
fingerprints were found in the room, cut a deal to receive a life
sentence instead of risking the death penalty by telling the police
that Glossip hired him to do it. As Glossip continues to narrowly
avoid execution by the state of Oklahoma, Berlinger's cameras are embedded
with his legal team in real-time as they race against the clock to
uncover new evidence that proves his innocence.
Berlinger has dedicated his career to exposing abuses in the
criminal justice system, most notably with Academy
Award®- nominated, Peabody-and Emmy®-winning
Paradise Lost trilogy of documentaries famously helped lead
to the release of one man from death row and two others from life
in prison. Every second counts as Glossip sits on death row
awaiting execution, and now Berlinger's cameras are there with
exclusive access to capture each moment as the clock ticks down.
With support growing worldwide for Glossip, the docu-series also
features interviews with high-profile supporters including Academy
Award®-winning actress Susan
Sarandon, billionaire entrepreneur and social activist
Richard Branson, and anti-death
penalty activist and author Sister Helen
Prejean (Dead Man
Walking) who, at the eleventh hour, heroically pursued
attorneys Don Knight and
Mark Olive, convincing them to
devote their time to the Glossip case pro-bono.
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP, a
world premiere two-night event, kicks off tonight, Monday, April 17 at 9/8c exclusively on ID.
Full episode descriptions for the premiere include:
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP: This
is Pointing to Me
Docu-Series World Premiere:
Monday, April 17 at
9/8c
The series premieres with Richard Glossip's most recent stay of execution
on September 30, 2015. The state of
Oklahoma prepares to execute
Richard Glossip by lethal injection,
for a murder Glossip maintains he had nothing to do with. But, just
as he was scheduled to die, officials at the Department of
Corrections realize they had procured the wrong drugs. This is
Glossip's third stay of execution – his third close brush with
death. Over the course of the episode, filmmaker Joe Berlinger tells the story of Glossip's epic
odyssey through the criminal justice system. The story begins in
1997, when Best Budget Inn motel owner Barry Van Treese is brutally murdered by his
maintenance man Justin Sneed. Sneed
claims Glossip put him up to the crime, and Glossip finds himself
facing a change of murder for hire, and a potential death sentence.
Today, Glossip sits on death row, having exhausted all legal
recourses. Once he is given a new execution date, he will be put to
death unless his current lawyer, Don
Knight, can prove Glossip's innocence. Knight and his
paralegal Meri Wright walk viewers
through the chronology of the crime and examine questions they are
struggling to answer before it's too late. Did Justin Sneed, the
murderer, act alone? And why did the police so quickly jump to the
conclusion that Glossip masterminded the murder? In addition to his
legal support, Glossip has thousands of supporters around the world
who are fighting to save his life, including Sister Helen Prejean, a nun known for her book Dead
Man Walking. She, along with
many others around the world, wholeheartedly believe in Glossip's
innocence. But time is ticking. Is the state of Oklahoma about to execute an innocent man?
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP: An
Obvious Homicide
World Premiere: Monday, April 17 at 10/9c
In
episode two of KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP, filmmaker Joe Berlinger delves into many of the
contradicting viewpoints surrounding the case of Richard Glossip, who is accused of master
minding a murder he maintains he had nothing to do with. Glossip
currently sits on death row while the confessed murderer,
Justin Sneed, serves a life without
parole. Archival footage from Glossip's original police interview
reveals that Oklahoma detectives
Bob Bemo and Bill Cook zeroed in on Glossip from the get-go.
In his present day interview, retired police Detective Bemo claims
that any aggressive conduct towards Glossip was a reaction to
Glossip's know-it-all attitude. But Glossip claims the detectives
never gave him a chance to explain his side of the story. Glossip
admits that he could have been more upfront about the aftermath of
the murder with the police, while reporters claim that even though
Glossip could have been more straightforward, there is still not
enough evidence to put him behind bars let alone on death row. As
Glossip's execution date nears, his devoted legal team keeps
fighting to prove his innocence. For months, they've been searching
for anyone who could shed light on his case, and finally, they find
someone. Roger Lee Ramsey, a
cellmate of the confessed murderer, Justin
Sneed, reveals his opinions about what happened in room
102.
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP: The
Machinery of Death
World Premiere: Tuesday, April 18 at 9/8c
Episode
three of the all-new docu-series KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP explores
trial mishaps, potential governmental corruption, and Richard Glossip's current lawyer's final
attempts to save his life. Wayne
Fournerat first represented Glossip in 1998, and had
previously never tried anyone in a capital case. Fournerat's flaws
were many, but chief among them was his failure to introduce the
police interview tape of Justin
Sneed, a move which many say robbed the jury of the
opportunity to put the detective's methods under scrutiny.
Fournerat's experience with the case still haunts him, and in the
years after the case he was disbarred (on another matter) and once
attempted suicide. Lawyer G. Lynn
Burch argues for Glossip's appeal on the grounds of
ineffective council by Fournerat, and for the first time in the
history of Oklahoma, Glossip wins
appeal with unanimous approval of five judges from the Oklahoman
Court of Appeals. Prosecutors confront Burch with evidence that he
had improperly met with the confessed murderer, Justin Sneed, during a pre-trial visit. Based on
Sneed's account, Burch was forced to recuse himself, Glossip is
assigned two attorneys, whom critics say, offered little in
defense. They call no expert witnesses to refute the state's claims
and again, fail to introduce the Sneed interview. Now, Glossip's
current lawyer Don Knight and team
reveal that the police destroyed a box of evidence, which Glossip
claims would have disproved the state's charges of embezzlement
against him. Knight and private investigator, Ashley Cusick, track down former defense
investigator Marcia Dawson, who
recounts how her efforts to obtain information about the case were
thwarted by the house detective at the Best Budget Inn, a man named
Cliff Everhart. The episode
concludes as Glossip describes what it is like to watch the
execution of other inmates on death row as his execution draws
nearer.
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP: Death
Watch
World Premiere: Tuesday, April 18 at 10/9c
Episode
four of KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP follows the investigation of
Oklahoma's failure to effectively
carry out its last three executions. In April 2014, The Oklahoma Department of
Corrections decided to test a controversial new drug, Midazolam,
for the execution of convicted murderer Clayton Lockett. David
Autry, Lockett's attorney witnessed the execution and said
as a result of the low dosage of Midazolam, his client suffered an
agonizing 43-minute death. Glossip's first execution, in
January 2015, was stayed while
lawyers argued before the Supreme Court against the use of
Midazolam. After they lost, Glossip was given September 16, 2015 as his next execution date.
Glossip's lawyer Don Knight procures
an affidavit from the cellmate of Justin
Sneed, the confessed murderer, which provided potentially
exonerating evidence for Glossip. But while the Court of Criminal
Appeals reviewed Knight's findings, The Oklahoma County District Attorney,
David Prater, places Knight's
witness under arrest, resulting in another rejection of the case.
Glossip was again scheduled to die on September 30, 2015. Glossip walks us through the
events of that day, when he came within hours of death. Outside the
prison gates, as the debate was unfolding, Knight, Sr. Helen,
family members and journalists recall thinking that Glossip was
dead. But prison and state officials were prepared to give him the
wrong drug, and before another botched execution attempt, Glossip
is granted reprieve, and continues to fight for his innocence.
For more information on Richard
Glossip's case, please visit
http://www.richardglossip.com/
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP
premieres exclusively on ID as a special two-night event on
Monday, April 17 and Tuesday, April 18 at 9/8c. The series is also
available on Investigation Discovery's TV Everywhere app ID GO,
which is available via the following platforms:
Apple:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/investigation-discovery-go/id1101436941?mt=8
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discovery.idsgo&hl=en
Web: https://www.investigationdiscoverygo.com
KILLING RICHARD GLOSSIP is
produced for Investigation Discovery by RadicalMedia. For
RadicalMedia, Joe Berlinger,
Dave O'Connor, Jon Kamen and Justin
Wilkes are executive producers, Betsy Wagner is the co-executive producer and
Kevin Huffman is the supervising
story producer. For ID, Lorna Thomas
is executive producer, Sara Kozak is
senior vice president of production, Kevin
Bennett is general manager, and Henry Schleiff is Group President of
Investigation Discovery, American Heroes Channel and Destination
America.
About Joe Berlinger and Third
Eye Motion Picture Company
Academy
Award®-nominated and Emmy® and
Peabody-winning filmmaker Joe
Berlinger has been a leading voice in nonfiction film and
television for two decades, with a particular emphasis on the
criminal justice system. Berlinger's films include the landmark
documentaries Brother's Keeper (PBS), a Sundance audience
award winner; the Paradise Lost Trilogy (HBO), which helped
lead to the release of the wrongfully-convicted West Memphis Three
after 18 years of incarceration; and most recently, Whitey:
United States of America vs.
James J. Bulger, a searing
investigation into law enforcement corruption at the highest levels
(CNN). Six of Berlinger's documentary features have premiered at
the Sundance Film Festival, earning three Grand Jury Prize
nominations. Berlinger has been a creator on numerous nonfiction
television series, including six seasons of the
critically-acclaimed Sundance
Channel series Iconoclasts; the
Emmy®-winning Ten Days That Changed America for
The History Channel; the Emmy®-nominated series Oprah's
Master Class and The System with Joe
Berlinger for Al Jazeera America. Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru premiered
on Netflix in July 2016. Berlinger's
most recent TV series was Judgment Day: Prison or Parole?
for ID, in which he and his team were granted unprecedented access
to parole board hearings. Third Eye Motion Picture Company is
Joe Berlinger's film and television
development company which partners with RadicalMedia on Berlinger's
nonfiction productions.
About RadicalMedia
RadicalMedia is
an Oscar, Emmy, Peabody and Grammy Award-winning studio who's
recent credits include, MARS for National
Geographic, Stan Against Evil for
IFC, Hamilton's
America for PBS' Great Performances,
Netflix's Abstract: The Art of Design, which had its
world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2017, and May
It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers which just won
the Audience Award: 24 Beats Per Second at SXSW 2017 and was
acquired by HBO. RadicalMedia has produced many Joe Berlinger directed projects including: the
Emmy®-winning documentary, Under African Skies
for A&E IndieFilms, the Spirit Award-winning
documentary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster for IFC
Films, Whitey: The US vs. James J.
Bulger for CNN, Tony
Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru for Netflix, and
the Academy®- and Emmy®
Award-nominated, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory for HBO.
RadicalMedia's vast body of work also includes the Oscar-winning
documentary, The Fog of War, Oscar-nominated and
Emmy-winning, What Happened, Miss Simone? for
Netflix, Keith Richards: Under
The Influence for Netflix, Doc & Darryl for
ESPN and Epix's America Divided
About Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (ID) is the leading
mystery-and-suspense network on television. From harrowing crimes
and salacious scandals to the in-depth investigations and
heart-breaking mysteries behind these "real people, real stories,"
the always revealing network challenges our everyday understanding
of culture, society and the human condition. One of our nation's
fastest growing cable networks, ID delivers the highest-quality
programming to approximately 85 million U.S. households and is
available in both high definition (HD) and standard definition
(SD). For more information, please visit
InvestigationDiscovery.com, facebook.com/InvestigationDiscovery, or
twitter.com/DiscoveryID. Investigation Discovery is part of
Discovery Communications (Nasdaq: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK), the world's
#1 pay-TV programmer reaching nearly 3 billion cumulative
subscribers in 220 countries and territories.
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SOURCE Investigation Discovery