Supreme Court orders new trial to Oklahoma death row inmate in closely watched case
In a rare move for a prosecutor, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond concluded trial attorneys hid evidence that may have led to an acquittal.
Portrait of Maureen GroppeMaureen Groppe
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave an Oklahoma death row inmate a new chance to prove his innocence, siding with both his lawyers and the state who said Richard Glossip did not get a fair trial in his 1997 murder-for-hire case.
In a rare move for a prosecutor, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond concluded trial attorneys hid evidence that might have led to an acquittal. But the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals last year said Drummond’s request to set aside Glossip’s conviction was not sufficient reason to halt his execution, prompting an appeal to the Supreme Court.
A majority of the court sided with Glossip, saying the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was involved at an earlier stage of the case when he was an appeals court judge, recused himself from the deliberations.
The high court’s reprieve was the latest chapter in the long-running case for Glossip who has received nine execution dates and eaten his “last meal” three times.
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He made multiple appeals to the high court, including in 2015 when he lost his challenge to Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol.
This time, Oklahoma − the state with the highest per capita execution rate − was in the unusual position of arguing that while prosecutors don’t consider Glossip innocent, he should be given a new trial.
Glossip was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 after a jury found him complicit in the 1997 murder of his boss at an Oklahoma City budget motel.
That conviction was set aside by an Oklahoma court which said his defense was inadequate.
A second jury found Glossip guilty in 2004 after a trial that, like the first one, depended heavily on the testimony of Justin Sneed, the motel’s maintenance man. Sneed confessed to killing Barry Van Treese – who was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat − but said Glossip pressured him into doing it. Sneed’s testimony against Glossip allowed him – but not Glossip − to avoid a death sentence.
More:An `unusual lineup': Oklahoma joins death row inmate in asking Supreme Court to set aside conviction
Richard Glossip at Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Okla., in November 2016. Glossip has been on death row for over two decades. His case has motivated Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin McDugle to pursue legislation that he hopes will fix the death penalty.
Drummond, who took office in 2023, concluded that evidence of Sneed’s bipolar disorder was withheld from the defense and that prosecutors allowed Sneed to falsely testify about his medical record.
The state told the Supreme Court that Glossip’s trial was “fundamentally distorted” by Sneed’s false testimony.
Evidence prosecutors knew Sneed was lying includes a page of notes handwritten by the prosecutor from a pretrial interview with Sneed, according to Glossip's attorneys and the attorney general.
Members of the Van Treese family argued the prosecutor’s notes are being misread and there was no error.
Christopher Michel, the attorney appointed by the Supreme Court to argue the trial was fair since the state agreed with Glossip, said the defense chose not to delve into Sneed’s mental health because it would have helped the prosecution make their argument that Sneed was vulnerable to Glossip’s manipulation.
Supreme Court orders new trial to Oklahoma death row inmate in closely watched case In a rare move for a prosecutor, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond concluded trial attorneys hid
Glossip’s attorneys said the defendant was denied the chance to show the jury Sneed’s memory was unreliable and that he was willing to lie on the stand.
The Supreme Court last year put Glossip's execution on hold as it considered the appeal.
The case is Glossip v. Oklahoma.
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