Glossip Defense Alleges Intimidation of Innocence Witnesses by Oklahoma Prosecutors

Defense lawyers have filed a motion in the case of Richard Glossip (pic­tured) alleg­ing that two wit­ness­es who have come for­ward with evi­dence of Glossip’s inno­cence have been intim­i­dat­ed by pros­e­cu­tors. Glossip was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Barry Van Treese, based upon the tes­ti­mo­ny of the actu­al killer, Justin Sneed, who was spared the death penal­ty in exhange for tes­ti­fy­ing that Glossip had offered him thou­sands of dol­lars to kill Van Treese. 

On September 23, Glossip’s attor­neys filed alle­ga­tions that Michael Scott and Joseph Tapley had been arrest­ed and inter­ro­gat­ed by pros­e­cu­tors in retal­i­a­tion for pro­vid­ing state­ments that Sneed had act­ed alone. Prior to Glossip’s sched­uled September 16 exe­cu­tion, Scott had pro­vid­ed an affi­davit stat­ing that, ​“Among all the inmates, it was com­mon knowl­edge that Justin Sneed lied and sold Richard Glossip up the river.” 

On September 16, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued a two-week stay of exe­cu­tion to allow con­sid­er­a­tion of new evi­dence in the case, includ­ing Scott’s alle­ga­tions. Later, a sec­ond for­mer inmate, Joseph Tapley, came for­ward to say he was ​“sure that Justin Sneed acted alone.” 

Tapley, who had been Sneed’s cell­mate, said Sneed offered ​“very detailed accounts” of the mur­der, but ​“nev­er gave me any indi­ca­tion that some­one else was involved. He nev­er men­tioned the name of Richard Glossip to me.” Tapley also said Sneed, ​“was very con­cerned about get­ting the death penal­ty. He was very scared of it. The only thing that mat­tered to him was sign­ing for a life sentence.”

The defense fil­ing alleges that, after the stay was grant­ed, Scott was arrest­ed for a parole vio­la­tion and ques­tioned by Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, whose office pros­e­cut­ed Glossip. It says that ​“Mr. Prater specif­i­cal­ly told Mr. Scott that he ordered this action so that Scott would be forced to talk with Prater and his inves­ti­ga­tor.” An arrest war­rant was also issued for Tapley after he told Prater he did not wish to speak with him. Prater sharply denied the alle­ga­tions of intim­i­da­tion, call­ing them ​“lies.”

Sneed received a life sen­tence in exchange for his tes­ti­mo­ny against Glossip. Unless anoth­er stay is issued, Glossip is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 30.