Supreme Court Rejects Glossip Death Row Appeal

The US Supreme Court has rejected a final appeal by Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, who says he was framed in his boss' 1997 murder.

In a brief order , the Justices denied his petition to have the court take up his case and stop him being put to death.

The ruling comes after Pope Francis' US diplomatic representative wrote to Oklahoma's governor urging her to spare 52-year-old Glossip.

The letter to Mary Fallin said clemency would "give clearer witness to the value and dignity of every person's life".

Oklahoma prison officials had been delaying Wednesday's execution as they awaited the decision.

Glossip, who ordered a last meal of pizza and fish and chips, was due to die at 3pm local time (9pm BST).

Sky News reporter Ian Woods, who has investigated the case , is due to watch Glossip be put to death at the inmate's invitation.

British billionaire Richard Branson took out a full-page ad in Wednesday's Oklahoman newspaper urging the state to stop Glossip's execution.

The ad says there is a "breathtaking" lack of evidence in the case and argued Glossip is innocent.

Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon and death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean have also taken up Glossip's cause .

His execution is due to be Oklahoma's first since the nation's highest court dismissed a challenge to the state's three-drug lethal injection formula .

Glossip was convicted of murdering his motel owner boss because the man who carried out the 1997 killing said Glossip had paid him to do it.

In return for his testimony, the actual killer escaped a death sentence and is serving life in prison.

Justin Sneed, a handyman at the Best Budget Inn, admitted using a baseball bat to kill the motel's owner, Barry Van Treese.

But Sneed continues to blame Glossip, telling the Oklahoma news organisation The Frontier: "He kept begging and pleading until the point he pushed me over an edge."

Glossip's attorneys say Sneed is lying and point out that in the interview he made a new claim which he had never raised before, to explain why there was no physical evidence linking Glossip to the crime.

"I look back now and I notice that he put some gloves on and he made sure his fingerprints wasn't there," Sneed was quoted as saying.

But Glossip told Sky News: "He testified at my second trial. He was asked that by the DA (District Attorney): 'Was Richard wearing gloves?' He said no."