OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed court papers with the U.S. Supreme Court detailing why the execution of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip should be stopped.
Drummond says Glossip’s conviction for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese should be vacated and remanded back to district court amid revelations of false testimony by the prosecution’s key witness.
The case goes back to 1997, when Glossip and Justin Sneed were convicted of killing Glossip’s boss and owner of the Best Budget Inn, Barry Van Treese.
Although Sneed confessed to beating and killing Van Treese with a bat, Sneed testified that Glossip hired him to kill Van Treese.
In exchange for his testimony, Sneed was given a life sentence. Glossip was sentenced to death.
Over the years, Glossip has had his execution date delayed at least eight times.
The AG says In court testimony, this witness falsely claimed he was not receiving medical treatment for mental issues when prosecutors knew he had been prescribed lithium for a psychiatric condition. Evidence indicates prosecutors knew the testimony was a lie but allowed it to stand.
"Today’s filing notes that the OCCA instead suggested "that Glossip somehow was aware of the withheld evidence during his trial and that the critical testimony was not actually ‘false’ because the witness was ‘more than likely in denial of his mental health disorders,’” a conclusion that the brief suggests was reached by “gold-medal doctrinal gymnastics,” stated a news release from AG Drummond.
The family of a murder victim is calling on the Supreme Court to deny clemency for a death row inmate.
Glossip was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998. The OCCA later overturned the conviction for ineffective assistance of counsel, but he was again convicted and sentenced to death at a 2004 retrial, when the star witness provided false testimony.
