As More Evidence of Innocence Emerges, 34 Oklahoma Legislators Call on Governor for Investigation of Death-Row Prisoner Richard Glossip’s Conviction

Following addi­tion­al rev­e­la­tions that Richard Glossip (pic­tured) may be inno­cent of the mur­der that sent him to Oklahoma​’s death row in 1998, a bipar­ti­san group of 34 state leg­is­la­tors are call­ing upon Governor Kevin Stitt and the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to con­duct an inde­pen­dent inves­ti­ga­tion into Glossip’s case. 

28 Republican and six Democratic leg­is­la­tors — includ­ing many who are sup­port­ers of the death penal­ty — sent a let­ter to Stitt and the Board on May 17, 2021 advo­cat­ing for the inves­ti­ga­tion. In that let­ter, they wrote: ​“Killing Richard Glossip with­out cer­tain­ty of his guilt will erode pub­lic trust, not only in cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, but in the integri­ty and fair­ness of the entire Oklahoma crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem.” The leg­is­la­tors held a press con­fer­ence at the Oklahoma Capitol on June 16 reit­er­at­ing their call for action. Rep. Kevin McDugle (R‑Broken Arrow), who is spear­head­ing the effort, said, ​“The only rea­son I’m here is because I do believe per­son­al­ly that we have an inno­cent man on death row.”

Glossip has long main­tained his inno­cence of orches­trat­ing the 1997 mur­der of Barry Alan Van Treese, his boss at an Oklahoma City motel. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked him to the mur­der. Justin Sneed, anoth­er motel employ­ee, killed Van Treese but, after receiv­ing a deal to avoid the death penal­ty, claimed Glossip promised to pay him $10,000 to do so.

Flanked by the leg­is­la­tors at the press con­fer­ence, Glossip’s lawyer, Don Knight, described the new evi­dence dis­cov­ered from inter­views with 190 peo­ple over the past six years. He said police found two sets of cloth­ing in the motel’s laun­dry room linked to the mur­der as well as two mur­der weapons, sug­gest­ing the pres­ence of an accom­plice whom police failed to inves­ti­gate. Multiple pris­on­ers who had been incar­cer­at­ed with Sneed in the Oklahoma City jail told the defense that Sneed con­fessed to the mur­der and told them Glossip was not involved. Other wit­ness report­ed that Sneed and his girl­friend at the time alleged­ly had planned to rob Van Treese to get mon­ey to feed his methamphetamine habit.

The let­ter to Governor Stitt states: ​“Many of those who have signed this let­ter sup­port the death penal­ty but, as such, we have a moral oblig­a­tion to make sure the State of Oklahoma nev­er exe­cutes a per­son for a crime he did not com­mit. Mr. Glossip’s case gives us pause, because it appears the police inves­ti­ga­tion was not con­duct­ed in a man­ner that gives us con­fi­dence that we know the truth.” The leg­is­la­tors specif­i­cal­ly ask the gov­er­nor to select an ​“inde­pen­dent attor­ney or inves­tiga­tive agency” who would have access not only to records com­piled by Glossip’s legal team, but also to those of the Oklahoma County ​“District Attorney’s office, or any police or law enforce­ment agency that inves­ti­gat­ed this case.”

The Long History of Misconduct in Oklahoma County Death Penalty Cases

Since the resump­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the 1970s, more pris­on­ers have been exon­er­at­ed from wrong­ful con­vic­tions and death sen­tences in Oklahoma County than from all but three oth­er U.S. coun­ties. In February 2021, the DPIC Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic found that five men sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma County have already been exon­er­at­ed. All were wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed between 1980 and 2001, dur­ing the 21-year tenure of District Attorney ​“Cowboy” Bob Macy.

Only Cook County (Chicago, Illinois), with 15, and Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, Ohio) and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), with six each, have had more wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed defen­dants exon­er­at­ed from death row. The Macy admin­is­tra­tion, which was marred by pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct, sent 54 peo­ple to death row while he was in office and bragged in cam­paign adver­tise­ments about the num­ber of pris­on­ers he had condemned. 

Glossip and Julius Jones — two of the high­est pro­file death penal­ty cas­es in the United States —were pros­e­cut­ed in the Macy admin­is­tra­tion and face exe­cu­tion despite strong evi­dence of inno­cence. Both assert that police and pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct played a sig­nif­i­cant role in their con­vic­tions, and Jones alleges that a com­bi­na­tion of racial bias, poor rep­re­sen­ta­tion, and false infor­mant tes­ti­mo­ny also con­tributed to his being sen­tenced to death for a crime he did not commit.

Glossip’s lawyers charge that cur­rent Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater has engaged in wit­ness intim­i­da­tion to impede Glossip’s attempts to prove his inno­cence. They allege that, after two for­mer pris­on­ers who knew Sneed came for­ward with infor­ma­tion that Sneed had act­ed alone and had lied about Glossip to receive a reduced sen­tence, Prater had arrest war­rants issued for both men. 

‘Political the­ater’ and ​‘false­hoods and lies’

Prater called the leg­is­la­tors’ press con­fer­ence ​“polit­i­cal the­ater” and com­plained that the leg­is­la­tors nev­er reached out to him to dis­cuss the case before call­ing for the inves­ti­ga­tion. ​“They have made no inquiry about any of the claims made by [Glossip’s] lawyers or sup­port­ers,” he said in a state­ment. ​“They have not request­ed tran­scripts of court pro­ceed­ings, appel­late briefs or any­thing else.” Prater said alle­ga­tions that his office had with­held evi­dence in Glossip’s case were ​“false­hoods and lies.”

Glossip came with­in min­utes of exe­cu­tion in September 2015, before the state revealed it had obtained the wrong drug for its lethal-injec­tion pro­to­col. Journalistic inves­ti­ga­tion uncov­ered records show­ing the state knew it had obtained the wrong drug, and had pre­vi­ous­ly used it in the January 2015 exe­cu­tion of Charles Warner. Executions in Oklahoma have been on hold since. On February 13, 2020, the state announced plans to resume exe­cu­tions using the same drug pro­to­col that led to a series of botched exe­cu­tions in 2014 and 2015. Prisoners have filed legal chal­lenges to the pro­to­col, and no exe­cu­tions have yet been scheduled. 

In March 2020, the Pardon and Parole Board indi­cat­ed that all pris­on­ers who receive an exe­cu­tion date will be enti­tled to a clemen­cy hear­ing. In a pri­or clemen­cy hear­ing, Glossip told the board: ““I did not plan and I did not par­tic­i­pate in the death of Mr. Van Treese, and I would have nev­er, ever paid for some­one to do any­thing like that.” 

At the press con­fer­ence, Knight said, ​“The board, because of the long delay that has tak­en place, has said that they will hear clemen­cy once again for Richard Glossip. So there is a clemen­cy hear­ing that is going to take place.” Oklahoma City’s News9 report­ed that Tom Bates, the board’s Executive Director, said the board had not offered to rehear Glossip’s clemen­cy request. ​“I have not had any con­ver­sa­tion with his coun­sel about this issue,” Bates said. ​“We are in some uncharted water.”