Amy 11 republican president ial candidates battled it out at the Ronald Reagan president ial library last night in the second republication president ial of the campaign. President ial debate of the campaign. We will play highlights and speak to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnston and john nichols. Then while wildfires rage in california, we will be joined by Climate Justice activist Tim Dechristopher. He spent 21 months in jail for disrupting an auction for oil drilling rights. Now he has joined a coalition calling on the white house to stop issuing new fossil fuel leases on public lands and oceans. But first to oklahoma, where three and a half hours before he was set to be executed, Richard Glossip was granted a stay of execution for two weeks. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. An Oklahoma Appeals Court granted deathrow prisoner Richard Glossip a lastminute stay of execution on wednesday only hours before he was slated to die. The decision was a response to an emergency request filled by filed by his lawyers amidst evidence he may be innocent. Robert patton, director of the Oklahoma Department of corrections, announced the stay. A few minutes ago i received a phone call from a general counsel that the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals has issued a stay for Richard Glossip until september 30. I have not read the actual order itself. I do not know the reasons behind the stay. What thenow stipulations of the state are. I have met with mr. Glossips family and inform them of the state. Amy we will go to obama city and speak with Richard Glossip less attorney and sister Helen Prejean after headlines. 11 candidates faced off in the second republican president ial debate wednesday night, four candidates who are lagging behind in the polls debated earlier in the evening. We will discuss the primetime debate of the excerpts later in the broadcast. Green Party President ial candidate jill stein has launched a petition to allow thirdparty candidates in the president ial debate. In 2012, dr. Stein and her running mate were arrested and shackled to chairs for about seven hours for trying to enter a debate from which stein and other thirdparty candidates were blocked from participating. Stein and others plan to file a lawsuit against the commission on president ial debates. Federal prosecutors are reportedly set to settle a criminal probe into General Motors for concealing an ignitionswitch defect linked to at least 124 deaths. The deal includes a nearly 1 billion fine, but spares any individual employees from prosecution. General motors has agreed to sign a deferredprosecution agreement, meaning the case will eventually be dismissed if the gm complies with the deals terms. In news from europe, the hungarian military has begun sending humvees mounted with guns toward its border with serbia, as the Hungarian Police detained dozens of refugees and fired tear gas and Water Cannons at hundreds more. Thousands more have set out across croatia, where the government has dispatched a team of mine clearers out of concern refugees might be killed or maimed by mines left over from fighting the mid1990s. Meanwhile germanys top , migration official has stepped down, following criticism that his office was not processing asylum applications fast enough. Germany says it expects at least one Million People to seek asylum there this year. As turmoil in syria continues to force connected us of refugees the top u. S. Military commander , in the middle east has acknowledged u. S. Efforts to train forces to counter the selfproclaimed Islamic State in syria have netted only a handful of fighters. Speaking before a senate panel, general lloyd austin acknowledged the 500 Million Program has produced only four or five fighters currently battling isil. And the a small number, ones that are in the fight is were talking four or five. Amy in other news on syria, the Obama Administration is reportedly going to accept talks between the u. S. And russian militaries following reports russia is building up forces in syria to support president bashar alassad. U. S. Officials said they expect the military to military talks will be in the coming days. In news from africa, Burkina Fasos military has seized power in an apparent military coup, after the president ial guard detained interim president Michel Kafando and dissolved the Transitional Government on wednesday. The president ial guard is loyal to Burkina Fasos former longtime president blaise compaore, who was ousted in a Popular Uprising nearly one year ago. Elections had been slated for next month. Hundreds of people slated for next month. In chile, one Million People have been evacuated and five people have been killed after a powerful 8. 3magnitude earthquake which caused flooding in coastal areas. Fifteenfoot waves struck the hit coastal town of coquimbo. Hundreds of thousands are without electricity. The Mexican Government says experts have identified remains of a second of the 43 students who went missing in the state of guerrero almost a year ago. Mexican authorities have claimed the students were rounded up by local police and turned over to drug gang members, who killed them and burned their bodies at a garbage dump. A recent independent report rejected mexicos version of events, and pointed to a role by federal police and the military in the students disappearance. On wednesday, authorities said testing by experts in austria determined a bone fragment from a site near the dump belonged to student jhosivani , guerrero de la cruz. In japan, lawmakers have taken a step toward enacting legislation that would allow japanese troops to fight abroad for the First Time Since world war ii. The bill was approved by the upper house after opposition lawmakers tried to physically block the vote. This comes after thousands of people protested outside the Japanese Parliament for a third consecutive day wednesday calling for the legislation to be scrapped and for Prime Minister shinzo abe to resign. They dont want the pacifist constitution of japan changed. A new report by inside climate news reveals how Oil Giant Exxon mobils own research confirmed the role of fossil fuels in Global Warming decades ago. By 1977, exxons own senior experts had begun to warn the burning of fossil fuels could pose a threat to humanity. At first, exxon launched an Ambitious Research program, outfitting a supertanker with instruments to study Carbon Dioxide in the air and ocean. But toward the end of the 1980s, exxon changed course, and shifted to the forefront of Climate Change denial. Since the 1990s, it has spent millions of dollars funding efforts to reject the science its own experts knew of decades ago. Scientist Richard Werthamer worked at exxon from 1978 to 1983, where he supervised exxons Carbon Dioxide program. The implications of increasing Carbon Dioxide were not that significant for exxon perse, they were significant because they implied dramatic changes in climate and that could provoke very substantial legislative consequences that would impact exxons business. You know, if you think that burning fossil fuels is going to flood your cities, well, theres when recent National Discussion about what to do about it. And one possibility is, were going after burn less carbon. Amy and in texas, a Muslim High School student who was arrested after bringing a homemade clock to school has received support from across the country, and announced plans to transfer schools. 14yearold Ahmed Mohamed built a digital clock and brought it is high school, Macarthur High School in irving, texas on , monday. After teachers said the device looked like a bomb, police interrogated and arrested him, handcuffed him and took him to a juvenile detention center, where they took his fingerprints and a mugshot. After mohameds story went viral amidst protest over islamophobia, he received praise from democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton and facebook founder mark zuckerberg, where he invited him to go to facebook and an invitation to the white house from president obama. Mohamed spoke at a News Conference wednesday. I guess everyone knows im the person who built a clock and got in a lot of trouble for it. Clock to impress my teacher, but when i showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her. Sad that shelly took a wrong impression of it, and i got arrested for later that day. But since the charges have already been dropped, i would like to say that i really want and camp and im thinking about transferring schools to a different school. Amy the mayor of Ahmed Mohameds city, irving, texas, has defended police and school officials. She is been accused of fueling islamophobia in the past for championing a bill to counter the purported threat of sharia law in texas. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report, im amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. Nermeen welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. An Oklahoma Appeals Court granted death row prisoner Richard Glossip a lastminute stay of his execution on wednesday only hours before he was slated to die. The decision was a response to an emergency request filled by filed by his lawyers tuesday afternoon. The decision came down at 11 30 a. M. Only three and a half hours before his scheduled execution by lethal injection. Glossips new execution date is september 30. Richard glossip was convicted in a murderforhire case in 1997 when he worked as a manager at the best budget inn in Oklahoma City. He was accused and convicted of paying a Maintenance Worker named justin sneed to kill his boss, Barry Van Treese. Amy there was never a question about who committed the murder. Justin sneed admitted entering the bosss room, striking him multiple times with a baseball bat. But glossip was soon arrested, as well, for allegedly hiring sneed to carry out the murder. The case rested almost solely on sneeds claims that glossip had offered him money and Job Opportunities for the killing. Glossips attorneys say sneed implicated their client in exchange for a deal to receive life in prison instead of the Death Penalty. No physical evidence tied glossip to the crime. Joining us now is don knight, one of the pro bono attorneys representing deathrow inmate Richard Glossip. Also with us on the phone is sister Helen Prejean, one of the worlds most wellknown antiDeath Penalty activists. As a catholic nun, she began her Prison Ministry over 30 years ago. Is author of the bestselling book, dead man walking an eyewitness account of the Death Penalty. We welcome you both to democracy now lets first go to the studio to don knight in Oklahoma City. Explain what happened. Three and a half hours before he was slated to die he got a state execution. What happened . Why Richard Glossip was his life spared yesterday, though the date has been set for two weeks from now . With found the petition the Oklahoman Court of criminal appeals asking that they consider our evidence of innocence that we had compiled, and that we had given to the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals on tuesday afternoon. Obviously, they took a look at it. I think they found merit in it. I dont know the reasons why they did not grant an indefinite stay in the hearing, but i think they just want to go ahead and look over the evidence and make sure theyre doing the right thing. But we were just so thrilled to have the opportunity to get a two week stay because we know theyre going to take it seriously, and that is what we are asking for. We think the evidence is good. We think it is strong. It shows Richard Glossips innocence. Amy explain what the evidence is. Basically, the government constructed a narrative, and it is a real torture narrative of this murder for hire when justlly, the real story is a very common story of a drug addict doing what a drug addict often does, and that is steel. Going. Is have a and the course of stealing to keep his have it going, he ended up killing a man. Witness,evidence, a who was a drug dealer and who will testify if this case gets a hearing that justin sneed was buying methamphetamine three or four times a week from him for stuff you was injecting it intravenously. He was definitely an addict. And furthermore, there is clear evidence that he was stealing from the rooms at the hotel using his passkey as a maintenance man, and was also stealing from the cars in the area. And that is exactly what he told in the thirdmself story he told in this case to the police, that he was going into Barry Van Treeses room using his passkey to get the keys from the pants on the goch, take them out to then to Barry Van Treese was car were he knew the money was and was going to still that money and it was pretty clear now he was going to still does steal that for the purpose of by more methamphetamine. Nermeen i want to ask about comments made by the attorney general scott pruitt. He said hes certain this will not result in anything new, saying im confident the court of criminal appeals after reviewing the filings will conclude there is nothing worthy which would lead the court to overturn a verdict reached by two juries who both found glossip guilty and sentenced him to death for Barry Van Treeses murder. Don knight, your response . This narrative they continue to throw out there were two juries, they use that when they wanted it to seem like the Death Penalty is inevitable here. Was so poorlyl conducted by the defense that the Oklahoma Court of criminal appeals itself reversed it and gave it back to the court for retrial because of it ineffective assistance of counsel. The truth is from the second trial, mr. Glossip did not get awyering. Loring l is one of thet attorneys representing Richard Glossip. We are getting a little problem with the satellite hits. Continue ,don. Thank you. See in the last 90 days we have been out once again conducting the investigation that we have found has never been conducted by the lawyers for mr. Glossip. Witnesses that should have been talked to, never were talk to. There were some us know investigation done so that when the time came for trial, theres no preparation done, very poorly conducted cross examination of justin sneed took once again, and there was no facts presented to back up what we have now found to be true, which is that justin sneed was in fact a drug addict and was stealing from the rooms. Amy can you explain a deal that justin sneed was offered by Police Detectives questioning him . Talk about the audiotape of them saying to him that he would avoid the Death Penalty if he implicated glossip. These two Police Officers were really quite good at how they sort of shifted and continued to sort of watch justin, i think, and play him to get him to where they wanted him to be. Once they got him to say the story that they really wanted him to say, which was to payicate richard in this for murder scheme, they went ahead and sent the confirmed with him that they had given him they had given the Police Everything that they wanted and it would really help him and he is really done himself a favor. He was asking about the Death Penalty may said, well, we cant be sure, but you have done yourself a good service here today. And a few months later, he signed a plea deal. s ourgain, don knight guest, one of the pro bono attorneys representing deathrow prisoner Richard Glossip. He is speaking to us from Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is where