The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose appeal drew national attention as well as support from the state’s conservative attorney general.
The retrial was ordered in light of allegations that the state withheld evidence related to Justin Sneed, the prosecution’s key witness. Glossip had been convicted in 1998 of arranging the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, an Oklahoma City motel owner. The charges were based on the testimony of Justin Sneed, the man who actually committed the murder, having beaten Van Treese to death with a baseball bat and robbed him. Sneed would later plea bargain his sentence, avoiding the death penalty in exchange for his testimony against Glossip, claiming that he carried out the murder after being promised $10,000 by the motel employee.
Glossip’s conviction was thus based on Sneed’s testimony, and only after several years did the state reveal that Sneed was in psychiatric care. According to the new evidence, prosecutors knew of Sneed’s diagnosis and treatment at the time of Glossip’s trial and, according to Glossip’s supporters, deliberately withheld this information from his defense.
In the time since his conviction in 1998, Glossip has escaped execution as many as nine times and eaten his so-called last meal three times before learning that his execution had been stayed. “We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her ruling.
