WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked Oklahoma from executing demise row inmate Richard Glossip for his function in a 1997 murder-for-hire after the state’s lawyer basic agreed Glossip’s life needs to be spared.
Glossip had been scheduled to be put to demise on May 18 regardless of statements by new Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond that Glossip didn’t obtain a good trial.
An Oklahoma appeals courtroom subsequently upheld Glossip’s conviction and the state’s pardon and parole board deadlocked in a vote to grant him clemency.
The excessive courtroom put the execution on maintain indefinitely whereas it critiques the case. Justice Neil Gorsuch took no half within the choice, presumably as a result of he handled the case earlier as an appeals courtroom choose.
“There is nothing more harrowing than the thought of executing a man who the state now admits has never received a fair trial,” Glossip lawyer Don Knight mentioned in an announcement. “Our hope is that the court will reverse the decision of the (Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals) and vacate Mr. Glossip’s conviction once and for all.”
Drummond, a Republican, mentioned in an announcement he was grateful for the excessive courtroom’s choice.
“I will continue working to ensure justice prevails in this important case,” he mentioned.
In a uncommon transfer, Drummond, the state’s high prosecutor, supported a high-court reprieve for Glossip, telling the justices, “Glossip’s trial was unfair and unreliable.”
But Drummond additionally has mentioned he doesn’t imagine Glossip is harmless of the murder-for-hire killing of Glossip’s former boss, Barry Van Treese, in 1997. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing and killing Van Treese after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed obtained a life sentence in alternate for his testimony and was the important thing witness in opposition to Glossip.
A telephone message left Friday with Van Treese’s brother, Ken Van Treese, wasn’t instantly returned.
Former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater has lengthy mentioned he believes Glossip persuaded Sneed to kill Van Treese. He mentioned that whereas Sneed’s testimony was most compelling, there was loads of proof to corroborate it.
“When police came to talk to Glossip about Van Treese’s whereabouts, he directed him away from the room he knew Van Treese was in,” Prater mentioned Friday. “At any point, Glossip had the opportunity to tell the police that Sneed did this. He never did that. He even helped Sneed clean up everything.”
Prater mentioned Sneed and Glossip additionally each had a considerable amount of money that Prater mentioned they stole from Van Treese’s automotive.
“In light of Gentner Drummond’s position regarding the stay, I don’t feel like the Supreme Court had much of a choice,” Prater mentioned. “But the truth will come out.”
Two separate unbiased investigations have revealed issues with the prosecution’s case.
Drummond mentioned Sneed lied on the stand about his psychiatric situation and his cause for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium, and that prosecutors knew Sneed was mendacity.
Also, proof was destroyed, Drummond mentioned.
Some Republican state lawmakers who help the demise penalty have joined the rising refrain of Glossip supporters who’re searching for to overturn his conviction.
“We’re just ecstatic,” state Rep. Kevin McDugle mentioned in a quick phone interview on Friday.
Glossip’s case has been to the Supreme Court earlier than. He was given a reprieve in 2015, though the courtroom later dominated 5-4 in opposition to him in a case involving the medicine utilized in deadly executions.
Glossip has been simply hours away from being executed three separate instances. His final scheduled execution, in September 2015, was halted simply moments earlier than he was to be led to the demise chamber when jail officers realized that they had obtained the mistaken deadly drug. That mix-up helped immediate a virtually seven-year moratorium on the demise penalty in Oklahoma.
Glossip’s case attracted worldwide consideration after actress Susan Sarandon – who received an Academy Award for her portrayal of demise penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean within the 1995 film “Dead Man Walking” – took up his trigger in actual life. Prejean herself has served as Glossip’s religious adviser and incessantly visited him in jail. His case additionally was featured within the 2017 documentary movie “Killing Richard Glossip.”
In January, the justices ordered a Texas appeals courtroom to look once more on the case of an inmate on demise row who had the backing of prosecutors. The inmate, Areli Escobar, had been convicted and sentenced to demise primarily based of forensic proof {that a} choose later discovered to be flawed. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the choose’s order for a brand new trial, regardless that the newly elected prosecutor in Travis County, Texas, was not standing behind the conviction. When Escobar appealed to the Supreme Court, the prosecutor supported his bid.
• Murphy reported from Oklahoma City.
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