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The US supreme court on Friday halted the execution of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose case has drawn crucial support from the state’s Republican attorney general after investigations raised questions about the integrity of the evidence in the 1997 murder Glossip was convicted of commissioning.
The justices acted after a divided Oklahoma state panel on 26 April voted against recommending clemency for Glossip, 60, who was scheduled to be executed on 18 May for his role in the motel owner Barry Van Treese’s murder. The decision put the execution on hold while the country’s highest court reviews the case.
Supreme court justice Neil Gorsuch took part in the case having previously dealt with it as an appellate judge.
Oklahoma’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, personally told the supreme court that “Glossip’s trial was unfair and unreliable”. However, Drummond has also said he does not believe Glossip is innocent of the murder-for-hire killing of Van Treese, who was Glossip’s former boss.
Another man named Justin Sneed has admitted robbing and killing Van Treese, saying he did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony and was the main witness against Glossip.
Two investigations have found flaws with prosecutors’ case against Glossip. Sneed lied on the stand about his psychiatric condition and his reason for taking a mood-stabilizing drug, Drummond has said.
And another problem to which Drummond has pointed is the destruction of evidence.
Friday was not the first time that Glossip’s case has landed before the supreme court. The high court gave him a reprieve in 2015, although it later voted 5-4 against his interests in a case centering on drugs used in executions.
Van Treese owned a Best Budget motel in Oklahoma City where Glossip was manager. Sneed was a maintenance worker at the motel before he confessed to police that he beat Van Treese to death with a baseball bat.
Besides Sneed’s testimony, no other forensic or corroborating evidence was presented at Glossip’s trial.
Republican lawmakers commissioned a 343-page report from the global law firm Reed Smith after becoming concerned about Glossip’s case constituting a miscarriage of justice. That report documented inconsistencies, including letters from Sneed in which he appeared to regret and possibly even recant his testimony along with evidence that other witness testimony had been tainted.
“No reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Richard Glossip of … murder,” the report concluded.
Glossip for his part recently told the Oklahoma officials weighing his clemency request: “I’m not a murderer, and I don’t deserve to die for this.”
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed reporting.
English (US)