Handwritten letter key to saving convicted killer Richard Glossip from lethal injection

Richard Glossip was minutes away from being executed in 2015.

A man awaiting lethal injection could be saved by another man's handwritten note that reads: "Things are eating away at me."

Richard Glossip, 59, is awaiting death by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary next month over the 1997 killing of his boss, Barry Van Treese.

Van Treese owned the Oklahoma City motel where Glossip worked and was fatally beaten to death with a baseball bat in room 102 of the Inn Motel on January 7, 25 years ago.

But Glossip didn't kill him. His co-worker, Justin Sneed, was convicted of fatally beating Van Treese to death.

He confessed to police that he bludgeoned Van Treese, but that wasn't all he had to say.

He told authorities he killed the father-of-five at the request of Glossip.

Glossip, who has always maintained that he was framed, was convicted of masterminding the killing and sentenced to die by lethal injection.

Sneed is serving a life sentence.

But as the clock ticks down towards Glossip's execution, a letter from Sneed has emerged.

It was written in 2007 and only recently uncovered by a law firm investigating Glossip's case.

"There are a lot of things right now that are eating at me," the letter reads.

"Somethings I need to clean up … I think you know were (sic) I'm going it was a mistake reliving this."

The firm wrote a 343-page report outlining what it says are fatal flaws in the conviction of Glossip.

Barry Van Treese was beaten to death in the motel he owned. Photo / Oklahoma DOC

Sneed's lawyer, Gina Walker, wrote back to the killer.

"I can tell by the tone of your letter that some things are bothering you," she wrote.

"I know that it was very hard for you to testify at the second trial."

She continued: "I hope (Glossip) has not or his lawyers have not tried to make you feel responsible for the outcome of his case."

The letters form just one part of a push by politicians to consider new evidence that could save Glossip's life.

It wouldn't be the first time.

In 2015, stripped down to his underwear and metres from the execution chamber, Glossip's life was saved by a mistake in the lethal chemical cocktail they were due to inject into Glossip's bloodstream.

Glossip had already had his last meal and was literally moments away from receiving the lethal injection.

"I'm just standing there in just my boxers," Glossip told reporters afterwards.

"They wouldn't tell me anything. Finally someone came up and said I got a stay (of execution)".

If he is saved a second time, he can thank Sneed's daughter for her part.

In a letter to the Oklahoma clemency board in 2014 she wrote that her father framed Glossip in order to avoid the death penalty.

"I strongly believe he (Glossip) is an innocent man on death row," she wrote.

"One innocent life has already been taken by my father's actions. A second one doesn't deserve to be taken as well."

Kim Van Atta, who has known Glossip for more than 20 years, said his friend's innocence was "clear from the start".

"There's no physical evidence, no rational motive. It just makes no sense," Mr Van Atta told news.com.au.

"There's a view that people on death row must have done something wrong. But Richard's an outlier. He's just a normal, decent guy," he said.

"He has no criminal record, no history of violence."

Oklahoma's track record with administering the death penalty was marred in April 2014 when death row inmate Clayton Lockett took an agonising 43 minutes to die.

He was writhing in pain on his stretcher. The incident led to calls to ban death by lethal injection.