Supreme Court tosses conviction and death sentence of Oklahoma inmate, orders new trial
The Supreme Court has tossed out the murder conviction and death sentence of Oklahoma’s Richard Glossip, ordering a new trial.
Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme. Prosecutors in Oklahoma twice convinced separate juries to send him to death row.
The justices heard arguments in October in a case that produced a rare alliance in which lawyers for Glossip and the state argued that the high court should overturn Glossip’s conviction and death sentence because he did not get a fair trial.
“We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a majority opinion.
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Richard Glossip has been granted a new trial by the Supreme Court. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP, File)
“The Court stretches the law at every turn to rule in his favor… On the merits, it finds a due process violation based on patently immaterial testimony about a witness’s medical condition,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a dissenting opinion. “And, for the remedy, it orders a new trial in violation of black-letter law on this Court’s power to review state-court judgments.”
Justice Samuel Alito also dissented, voting to uphold the conviction and death sentence, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett would have allowed a state appeals court to decide how to proceed.
At issue was whether Glossip’s constitutional rights were violated when possibly exculpatory evidence was not turned over to his lawyers at trial. And whether Oklahoma’s highest criminal court should have upheld the conviction and sentence, even after that new evidence came to light.
The case against Glossip, now 62, essentially rested on the testimony of Justin Sneed, in what prosecutors had originally said was a murder for hire.
The state claimed Glossip, who was employed at the Best Budget Inn, hired co-worker Sneed for $10,000 to kill their boss. The motive– Glossip allegedly feared he would be fired for skimming money from the business.
Sneed later admitted to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat and received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony.
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Ericka Glossip-Hodge, left, daughter of Richard Glossip, and Billie Jo Ogden Boyiddle, right, Richard Glossip’s sister, listen during a rally to stop the execution of Richard Glossip, in Oklahoma City, in September 2015. (AP/Sue Ogrocki)
In 2023, Republican Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond ordered an outside independent review of Glossip’s case.
Drummond, citing “troubling evidence of grave prosecutorial misconduct,” then formally “confessed error” by the state, and said Glossip deserved a new trial.
Among Drummond’s concerns are that prosecutors knew Sneed lied on the witness stand about his psychiatric condition and his reason for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium.
The Supreme Court’s syllabus of the case said “evidence of Sneed’s bipolar disorder, which could trigger impulsive violence when combined with his drug use, would have contradicted the prosecution’s portrayal of Sneed as harmless without Glossip’s influence.”
Drummond has also cited a box of evidence in the case that was destroyed, including motel receipts, a shower curtain and masking tape that Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said could have potentially proven Glossip’s innocence.
Glossip has always maintained his innocence. He was initially convicted in 1998 but won a new trial ordered by a state appeals court. He was convicted again in 2004.
The Supreme Court voted 6-2 on Tuesday to toss out the conviction and death sentence of Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip. Justice Gorsuch was recused from the case. (AP/Jon Elswick)
Meanwhile, the victim’s relatives had told the Supreme Court that they wanted to see Glossip executed.
If Glossip were to be tried again, the death penalty would be off the table, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna has said.
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Then as now, the state still believes Glossip may be at least guilty of aiding and abetting a crime after the fact, which would not mean a death sentence.
Fox News’ Shannon Bream and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Richard Glossip was convicted in 1997 alleged murder-for-hire plot
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Supreme Court throws out death sentence, murder conviction of Okla. death row inmate
By
NPR Washington Desk
Anti-death penalty activists rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 29 in an attempt to prevent the execution of Oklahoma inmate Richard Glossip.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who has been on death row for more than 25 years.
The court found that Glossip’s trial violated his constitutional rights. It reversed the Oklahoma state court’s judgement and sent the case back for a new trial.
The majority opinion was written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the opinion in part. Justices Clarence Thomas dissented and was joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Barrett in part. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in this case.
At issue was a remarkable true-crime drama that pit Oklahoma’s attorney general against the state’s highest court for criminal appeals. The question before the court was whether the state court wrongly refused to accept the attorney general’s findings that Glossip was entitled to a new trial.
Glossip has been on death row for more than 25 years. In that time, he has been tried and convicted twice and has lost multiple appeals, including one at the Supreme Court.
This is a developing story and will be updated
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US Supreme Court orders new trial for Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip
The US Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man on death row.
The court ruled 5-3 in favour of Glossip, reversing an Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruling.
The move comes after the state’s Republican attorney general joined Glossip in calling for a new trial.
Glossip, 62, was convicted in the 1997 murder of the owner of an Oklahoma City motel where he worked. He has had nine execution dates postponed, and eaten his “last meal” three times.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in Tuesday’s opinion for the court: “We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony.”
She was joined in the ruling by fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, both conservatives, also joined the opinion.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, another conservative, agreed with the opinion but said she would have sent the case back for more proceedings.
Justice Neil Gorsuch did not join in the case.
Don Knight, an attorney for Glossip, called the ruling “a victory for justice and fairness in our judicial system”.
The defence lawyer said Glossip will be given the chance to have a fair trial “that he has always been denied”.
It will be up to Oklahoma prosecutors to determine how to proceed with his case.
Glossip has maintained his innocence for 27 years.
His boss, Barry Van Treese, owner of the Best Budget Inn motel in Oklahoma City , was beaten to death with a baseball bat in 1997.
Glossip’s colleague, Justin Sneed, was convicted of the killing, but said Glossip had told him to carry out the murder.
Sneed confessed to the murder but was able to evade execution by accepting a plea deal that involved testifying that Glossip paid him $10,000 to do it.
Glossip admitted to assisting Sneed in covering up the murder after it happened, but denied knowing of any plan to kill Van Treese.
It has since emerged that prosecutors did not disclose that Sneed, a methamphetamine addict, had been treated for a serious psychiatric condition.
“Had the prosecution corrected Sneed on the stand, his credibility plainly would have suffered,” Justice Sotomayor wrote.
“That correction would have revealed to the jury not just that Sneed was untrustworthy … but also that Sneed was willing to lie to them under oath.”
Glossip was first convicted in 1998, but that was overturned in 2001. He was convicted again three years later.
In 2015, just a few steps away from the execution chamber, his execution was halted to review the lethal injection drugs.
In 2023, the Supreme Court intervened after Oklahoma’s attorney general and Glossip asked for a new trial.
A number of big names have backed Glossip’s efforts in the past including Pope Francis, Kim Kardashian and Sir Richard Branson.
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