The governor of Oklahoma has dismissed a stay of execution for the death row inmate Richard Glossip, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection later today.
Glossip, is being held at Oklahoma State Penitentiary ahead of his scheduled execution at 3pm local time.
He was convicted of paying to have his boss, Barry Van Treese, beaten to death in 1997 and has spent the past 17 years on death row.
Glossip's legal team appealed to Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin for a 60-day stay of execution.
Governor Fallin rejected the application, arguing that a dossier of evidence brought to her office by Glossip's legal team reveals no "credible evidence of Richard Glossip's innocence".
In a statement, Governor Fallin said: "Yesterday, forty-eight hours before Glossip's scheduled execution, his attorneys presented my office with a binder of what they have labelled 'new evidence'.
"After reviewing it with my legal team, we have determined the vast majority of the limited contented they have presented is not now; furthermore, we find none of the material to be credible evidence of Richard Glossip's innocence. After carefully reviewing the facts of this case multiple times, I see no reason to cast doubt on the guilty verdict reached by the jury or to delay Glossip's sentence of death. For that reason I am rejecting his request for a stay of execution."
Glossip's attorney Don Knight has taken the case to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in a last-ditch effort to stop the execution.
Glossip was convicted over Mr Van Treese's death despite another man admitting to carrying out the killing. He has always maintained his innocence.
Last month the actress Susan Sarandon joined a campaign to stop the execution.
The Oscar-winning actress urged Governor Fallin to intervene, describing Glossip as "clearly innocent".
If Glossip is put to death today he will become the 113th prisoner to die in Oklahoma in the past four decades.
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