Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma loss of life row inmate, has been scheduled for execution 9 occasions — and every time, he has averted that destiny following authorized twists and turns.
Convicted for the 1997 killing of his former boss, Glossip has maintained his innocence for practically three many years. Now, the state’s Republican legal professional basic has joined him in urging the Supreme Courtroom to overturn his homicide conviction and loss of life sentence to grant him a brand new, honest trial.
That unlikely flip of occasions positioned the uncommon capital punishment case earlier than the justices, who will contemplate Glossip’s newest bid for freedom throughout arguments on Wednesday.
It’s not disputed that Barry Van Treese, a motel proprietor and Glossip’s former boss, was overwhelmed to loss of life by upkeep employee Justin Sneed; Sneed admitted to as a lot. However Oklahoma prosecutors mentioned Glossip ordered him to hold out the crime in a murder-for-hire scheme.
Sneed evaded the loss of life penalty by agreeing to plead responsible and testify in opposition to Glossip, as a substitute incomes a life sentence in jail for killing Van Treese. Glossip was discovered responsible and given a loss of life sentence in 1998, however that conviction was overturned attributable to ineffective counsel on attraction; he was retried in 2004 and once more convicted and sentenced to loss of life.
Over the loss of life row inmate’s objections, Oklahoma’s highest prison appeals court docket upheld his conviction final 12 months, and an execution date was scheduled for Could 18, 2023.
In Glossip’s attraction to the Supreme Courtroom, his attorneys advised the justices Sneed, an “indispensable witness” in Glossip’s retrial, was not credible. They declare he lied about drug abuse and a psychiatric situation rendering him “potentially violent” — and that state prosecutors let that lie go uncorrected with the jury.
Oklahoma Legal professional Normal Gentner Drummond (R) has mentioned he doesn’t imagine Glossip is harmless. However, in a rare transfer, he submitted a short to the justices in help of overturning Glossip’s loss of life sentence following an “unfair and unreliable” trial.
“While the State previously opposed relief for Glossip, it has concluded, based on careful review of new information that recently came to light relating to prosecutorial misconduct at Glossip’s trial and cumulative error, that Glossip’s conviction and capital sentence cannot stand,” Drummond wrote in court docket filings.
Drummond additionally referred to as the appeals court docket’s determination “wrong on the facts and wrong on the law,” suggesting it “cries out for correction.”
The Supreme Courtroom stepped in to dam his execution two weeks earlier than he was set to die and in January agreed to listen to his case.
It’s not the primary time Glossip’s case has reached the Supreme Courtroom. In 2015, his and two different Oklahoma loss of life row inmates’ executions have been halted by the court docket after they challenged the state’s deadly injection protocol.
The inmates argued the state’s use of midazolam violated the Eighth Modification’s ban on merciless and weird punishment as a result of the sedative doesn’t solely stop prisoners from feeling the consequences of two different medicine meant to trigger loss of life.
Finally, the justices dominated 5-4 in opposition to the inmates that states might use the drug. Justice Samuel Alito wrote for almost all that Glossip and the opposite two inmates didn’t determine a much less painful various.
Glossip’s newest attraction to the Supreme Courtroom has seen important help, drawing scores of friend-of-the-court briefs from present and former state and federal prosecutors, civil liberties teams and greater than a half-dozen states. Celebrities together with Kim Kardashian and tv star Phil McGraw, higher often called Dr. Phil, additionally spoke out in Glossip’s help.
Nevertheless, the household of sufferer Van Treese has strongly condemned the derailment of Glossip’s execution. In an amicus transient to the court docket, topped with a portrait of Van Treese, they wrote that “today —10,047 days later — the Van Treese family has an interest in seeing Oklahoma’s duly imposed sentence on Glossip carried out without further delay.”
The household recommended Drummond, the legal professional basic, sensed a possible “political opportunity” in Glossip’s case when he ordered assessment. They requested to be heard earlier than the justices, however the excessive court docket declined to incorporate them in arguments.
As a result of the state isn’t arguing that Glossip’s execution ought to go ahead, the justices appointed lawyer Christopher Michel, a former regulation clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts and to Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on an appeals court docket, to make that argument.
Though Glossip and the state have requested the Supreme Courtroom to permit him a brand new trial, the justices might determine that they don’t have the jurisdiction to assessment the Oklahoma Courtroom of Prison Appeals’ determination to uphold his conviction and loss of life sentence. The justices added that query when granting the case.
A choice is predicted subsequent summer time.
