TULSA — In April of 2023, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied a new trial for Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip.
[Hear the KRMG In-Depth Report on the latest developments regarding Glossip’s case HERE]
It made the ruling despite arguments from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond that Glossip did not get a fair trial before he was sentenced to death - an extremely rare position for any prosecutor or attorney general to take.
Drummond’s stance may help explain why in May of ‘23, the United States Supreme Court blocked Glossip’s execution.
By September of that year, Glossip’s attorneys had petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his appeal, and there the case stood for several months.
Monday, the high court announced it would indeed grant a hearing - and once again, the Richard Glossip case is in the national spotlight.
His attorney, Don Knight, tells KRMG it was a courageous - and moral - stand by Drummond that probably led the high court to agree to a hearing.
Despite the fact that he still thinks Glossip guilty, Drummond says it’s clear that key exculpatory evidence was withheld from the defense, and subsequently from the jury.
“What the Attorney General has said here is not that Rich is innocent, but he didn’t get a fair trial,” Knight said. “And that’s a whole ‘nother matter, right? I mean, to say ‘Look, we believe that you, before we give you any kind of sentence, whether it’s, you know, a day in jail or a fine, or anything - or the death sentence - everybody should be able to have a fair trial.’ And when you see that a trial wasn’t fair, you have to make it right. And that’s what Attorney General Drummond is standing up for, and that’s the right principle.”
Specifically, Justin Sneed, the hotel maintenance man who confessed to beating Barry Van Trease to death with a baseball bat, but says Glossip solicited the murder and robbery, lied on the stand during Glossip’s second trial in 2004, when he told jurors he was not on any medicine or undergoing treatment for any mental health conditions, when in fact he was under a doctor’s care and on Lithium at the time.
That came to light only in 2023, when Drummond turned over the infamous “Box 8″ of evidence which was in the Office of the Attorney General’s custody for years, but never given to Glossip’s attorneys - a violation of discovery laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not determine guilt or innocence.
Its ruling will either result in a third trial in district court, or allow the guilty verdict and death sentence to stand, meaning Glossip will face a tenth date with the executioner.
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