The Supreme Court ruled against Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip in 2015, and if not for a corrections department blunder, he’d be dead. Almost a decade later, Glossip returns to the high court next week a second time, bringing the justices mountains of support for another trial and hoping a procedural hurdle doesn’t end his case for innocence before it can begin, reports Courthouse News. Even though the Oklahoma attorney general admitted prosecutorial misconduct tainted Glossip’s conviction and advocated against his execution, a state court refused to grant a new trial to review his innocence claim. Glossip and Oklahoma want the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling, but the justices may decide they can’t intervene.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is the state’s highest court of criminal jurisdiction. Because the Supreme Court only reviews federal questions, the justices need to know if the criminal court’s ruling was based solely on state law, putting it outside the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. Justin Sneed pleaded guilty to murdering hotel owner Barry Van Treese in 1996 but avoided the death penalty by testifying that Glossip — the hotel’s manager — hired Sneed to murder Van Treese. Glossip’s conviction hinged on Sneed, without him there’s no direct link between Glossip and Van Treese’s murder. Defense lawyer Don Knight found that Sneed was a habitual methamphetamine user and needed drug money. He discovered that the police fed information to Sneed about Glossip’s involvement. Knight said the problems with Glossip’s conviction stretched from hidden evidence to prosecutorial misconduct. Glossip’s trial attorney never presented the information Knight found to a jury.
Comments