Oklahoma Attorney General Files SCOTUS Brief in Support of Richard Glossip

On July 5, 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (pic­tured) filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in sup­port of death row pris­on­er Richard Glossip’s peti­tion for a writ of cer­tio­rari. The Innocence Project and six legal schol­ars have also filed briefs in sup­port of Mr. Glossip, while the victim’s fam­i­ly and the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association have filed a brief in opposition. 

“The [Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals] OCCA’s deci­sion can­not be rec­on­ciled with this Court’s prece­dents, the record in this case, or bedrock prin­ci­ples,” states the brief, ​“After care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion – includ­ing a thor­ough review by an inde­pen­dent coun­sel – the State came to the con­clu­sion that …ensur­ing that jus­tice is done in this case requires a retrial.” 

The brief explains that Mr. Glossip’s con­vic­tion for the 1997 killing of his boss, Barry Van Treese, relied on false tes­ti­mo­ny from Mr. Glossip’s co-defen­dant, and co-work­er, Justin Sneed, ​“the per­son who actu­al­ly deliv­ered the fatal blows to the vic­tim and agreed to coop­er­ate with pros­e­cu­tors to avoid fac­ing the death penal­ty him­self.” Based on this infor­ma­tion and Mr. Sneed’s his­to­ry of drug use and seri­ous psy­chi­atric con­di­tion, ​“the State believes that a qual­i­fied defense attor­ney like­ly could have attacked” the tes­ti­mo­ny and pro­vid­ed ​“a viable alter­na­tive the­o­ry of the case that did not involve Glossip.” 

To allow time to review the peti­tions, the U.S. Supreme Court grant­ed Mr. Glossip a stay of exe­cu­tion on May 5 ahead of his sched­uled May 18 exe­cu­tion date. Earlier in April, the Oklahoma Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant Mr. Glossip clemen­cy, despite unprece­dent­ed sup­port for clemen­cy from AG Drummond. Prior to that, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals denied Mr. Glossip’s appeal despite AG Drummond’s motion request­ing the con­vic­tion be vacat­ed and returned to the lower court.