US high court halts execution of man who received ‘unfair’ trial

World
By William

The United States Supreme Court has barred Oklahoma from executing death row inmate Richard Glossip for his role in a 1997 murder-for-hire after the state’s attorney general agreed that his life should be spared.

While it is rare for the Conservative-dominated court to delay executions, it is even more unusual for a prosecutor to side with the prisoner.

Glossip was scheduled to be put to death on May 18, despite statements by Oklahoma’s new Attorney General Gentner Drummond that the defendant was not given a fair trial.

An appeals court in Oklahoma then upheld Glossip’s convictionand the state’s parole and parole board stalled in a vote to grant him clemency.

The Supreme Court has suspended the execution indefinitely while it reviews the case. Judge Neil Gorsuch took no part in the decision, presumably because he previously heard the case as an appellate judge.

“There is nothing more harrowing than the thought of executing a man whom the state now admits never received a fair trial,” Glossip’s attorney Don Knight said in a statement. “Our hope is that the court’s decision [Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals] and lift Mr. Glossip’s conviction once and for all.

Drummond, a Republican and the state’s top prosecutor, supported a Supreme Court stay for Glossip, telling the judges, “Glossip’s trial was unfair and unreliable”. In a statement, he said he was grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision.

“I will continue to work to ensure that justice prevails in this important case,” Drummond said.

But Drummond has also said he doesn’t believe Glossip is innocent of the 1997 murder-for-hire of his former boss, Barry Van Treese.

Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted to robbing and killing Van Treese after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony and was a star witness against Glossip.

The Associated Press left a telephone message for Van Treese’s brother, Ken Van Treese, on Friday. It was not immediately returned.

Former Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater has long said he believes Glossip persuaded Sneed to kill Van Treese. He said that while Sneed’s testimony was the most compelling part of the case, there was enough evidence to corroborate it.

“When the police came to talk to Glossip about Van Treese’s whereabouts, he directed [officers] away from the room he knew Van Treese was in,” Prater said Friday. “At any point, Glossip had a chance to tell the police that Sneed did this. He never did. He even helped Sneed clean everything up.”

He added that Sneed and Glossip also had a large amount of cash that Prater believes they stole from Van Treese’s car.

“In light of Gentner Drummond’s position on the stay, I don’t feel the Supreme Court had much of a choice,” Prater said. “But the truth will come out.”

Two separate independent investigations have revealed problems with the prosecution’s case.

Drummond said Sneed lied on the witness stand about his psychiatric condition and his reason for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium. He also said prosecutors knew Sneed was lying.

Evidence was also destroyed, Drummond said.

Some Republican state lawmakers who support the death penalty have joined the growing chorus of Glossip supporters seeking to overturn his conviction.

“We’re just ecstatic,” Rep. Kevin McDugle told the Associated Press in a short phone interview Friday.

Glossip’s case has been before the Supreme Court. He was granted a reprieve in 2015, although the court later ruled 5 to 4 in a case involving the drugs used in lethal executions.

Glossip is just hours away from three separate executions. His last scheduled execution, in September 2015, was halted just before he was to be led to the death chamber after prison officials realized they had been given the wrong deadly drug.

That switch led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma.

Glossip’s case attracted international attention after actress Susan Sarandon — who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of anti-death penalty Sister Helen Prejean in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking — took up his case in real life. Prejean himself has served as Glossip’s spiritual advisor and has visited him frequently in prison.

His case was also featured in the 2017 documentary Killing Richard Glossip.

Glossip is the first inmate to receive a reprieve from the current judges since their terms began in October. The court rejected requests from 15 others, including Darryl Barwick who was executed in Florida on Wednesday.

But in a situation similar to Glossip’s, in January the judges ordered a Texas appeals court to revisit the case of a death row inmate, who also had prosecutors’ support. The prisoner, Areli Escobar, was found guilty and sentenced to death based on forensic evidence that a judge later found flawed.

However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the judge’s order for a new trial, even though the newly elected prosecutor in Travis County, Texas, no longer supported the conviction. When Escobar appealed to the Supreme Court, the prosecution supported his bid. Escobar was not about to be executed.

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