By The Vanguard Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Defense counsel for death row accused Richard Glossip Thursday said Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond conceded error in Glossip’s case and asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn Glossip’s conviction and remand the case to the trial court.
The defense said the AG’s request to the Court is in response to the Successive Application for Post-Conviction Relief, filed by Glossip on March 27.
The defense explained the filing by the AG cites the report by his appointed Independent Counsel, which concluded that “the numerous trial and appellate defects throughout the history of this case can be remedied only by remand for a new trial. [F]urther advocacy in support of the case’s current posture does not serve the interests of justice; instead, it rewards the defects and errors in the process. In my view, a new trial is necessary to restore integrity to the process herein.”
Don Knight, attorney for Glossip, said in a prepared statement the “filing by AG Drummond states what we have long contended, that Justin Sneed, the State’s star witness against Mr. Glossip, is not credible.”
Knight noted, “Richard Glossip has been on Oklahoma’s death row for 25 years even though it is not disputed that another man, Justin Sneed, murdered Barry Van Treese. Mr. Glossip’s conviction is based almost entirely on statements made by Justin Sneed that it now clearly appears he wanted to recant. Mr. Glossip has always maintained his innocence.
“Mr. Glossip’s execution has been rescheduled eight times since 2015 and is currently scheduled for May 18, 2023. On March 27, Attorney General Gentner Drummond and attorneys for Mr. Glossip filed a joint Motion for Stay of Execution with the Court of Criminal Appeals seeking a delay of the scheduled execution until August 2024.”
Knight said, “Now, even the State has concluded that ‘Justin Sneed made material misstatements to the jury regarding his psychiatric treatment and the reasons for his lithium prescription’ and that the State ‘is compelled to correct these misstatements and permit the trier of fact the opportunity to weigh Sneed’s credibility with accurate information.’”
“(T)he AG’s own Independent Counsel confirms in his report what we have long known: Richard Glossip’s conviction is unreliable and granting him a new trial is required. The Independent Counsel’s report reached the same conclusion that the Reed Smith independent investigation for Oklahoma legislators did — that a cumulation of serious errors occurred that likely changed the outcome of his 2004 trial.
“It is now clear that it would be unconscionable for the State to move forward with Mr. Glossip’s execution when there is so much doubt surrounding his conviction. We thank Attorney General Drummond for his courageous decision to take a deeper look at this difficult case and urge the Court of Criminal Appeals to quickly grant the Attorney General’s request and remand Mr. Glossip’s case to the trial court for further proceedings.”
Defense produced history of Glossip’s appeal including OK AG’s announcement Jan. 26, 2023, that he was “directing an Independent Counsel to conduct a comprehensive review of Richard Glossip’s murder conviction and death sentence. This follows a previous request for an independent investigation made by an ad hoc group of Republican Oklahoma state legislators that was conducted by the international law firm Reed Smith.”
Defense-provided information added, “That investigation resulted in a finding that, if a jury was presented with all the evidence now available, no reasonable juror would find Mr. Glossip guilty of murder for hire. AG Drummond said he retained former prosecutor Rex Duncan to review all aspects of the investigation, trial, sentencing and appeals process and stated:
“‘As my office will represent the State at the clemency hearing, it is my responsibility to ensure that we are appropriately responding to all evidence that has been presented through Mr. Glossip’s conviction and incarceration. Circumstances surrounding this case necessitate a thorough review. While I am confident in our judicial system, that does not allow me to ignore evidence. This review helps ensure that justice is served, both to the Van Treese family and the accused.’”
On Aug. 16, 2022, OK Gov. Kevin Stitt “granted a 60-day reprieve for Mr. Glossip, staying his execution that had been set for Sept. 22, 2022, ‘to allow time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address a pending legal proceeding. On Nov. 2, 2022, Gov. Stitt granted an additional 60-day reprieve to accommodate continued legal proceedings, setting the new date for February 16, 2023.”
The defense notes that on Nov. 10 and Nov. 17, 2022, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals “issued opinions denying Mr. Glossip’s two applications for post-conviction relief, without allowing him to present any new evidence, and thereby defying the requests of sixty-two state legislators, including 45 Republicans, who backed a call for an evidentiary hearing based on newly-discovered evidence.”
The defense adds, “Some of the newly-discovered evidence comes from the Third, Fourth, and a newly released Fifth Supplement to the Reed Smith independent investigation which found, among other important issues, that the state’s key witness, Justin Sneed, talked about recanting his testimony over the course of 11 years.
Those incidents happened, according to information provided by the defense, “both before and after Glossip’s second trial, including a handwritten note in which he asks his attorney, ‘Do I have the choice of recanting at any time during my life?’ and a second note stating that his testimony was ‘a mistake.’ That information should have been, but never was, shared with Mr. Glossip’s attorneys and could have resulted in a different outcome in the trial, which relied heavily on Sneed’s testimony given as part of a plea deal that spared Sneed his own death sentence.”
The defense also said, “The investigation by Reed Smith also included a series of conversations Reed Smith lawyers had with Justin Sneed in late August and early September in which he agreed that over the years he had talked to his daughter and his mother about recanting, something he had previously denied.”
The memo was discovered, revealed the defense, “in the files from the District Attorney’s office, also details how the trial prosecutor worked behind the scenes with Sneed’s attorney during Mr. Glossip’s trial to feed Sneed information before he testified, in what appears to be an improper, yet successful, attempt to get Sneed to change his testimony on a key point of evidence. This memo had been withheld from Mr. Glossip’s team, despite a duty to disclose it during the trial, until September 2022.”
According to coverage analysis noted by the defense, “In 2015, Mr. Glossip was the lead plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision of Glossip v. Gross that cleared the way for his execution later that year, and which was stayed only due to an attempt by state authorities to kill him with the wrong drugs.
“The Glossip decision had within it the oft-cited Justice Breyer dissent on the tortured road the country has traveled with the death penalty since its reinstatement in 1976. Mr. Glossip’s attorneys have said that it now appears that, in the Glossip decision written by Justice Alito, the Court may have given the green light to kill an innocent man.”
