Supreme Court puts Oklahoma execution of Richard Glossip on hold

The Supreme Court has put on hold the ordered execution of a man whose murder conviction has received widespread attention over whether he received a fair trial.

The court placed a stay on the death sentence for Richard Glossip, who had been set to be executed by lethal injection May 18 for the 1997 killing of motel owner Barry Van Treese, Glossip’s former boss. A jury convicted Glossip of paying another man, Justin Sneed, to kill Van Treese. Glossip has maintained his innocence, and Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) has sought to intervene on his behalf.

Glossip faced a setback last week, when the state’s Pardon and Parole Board deadlocked 2-2 on whether he should be recommended for clemency. Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) could not grant Glossip clemency without that recommendation.

An Oklahoma appeals court also upheld Glossip’s conviction last month.

Glossip then filed a petition, asking the Supreme Court to step in. The court’s stay of the execution is in effect while it decides whether to hear his case on its merits.

The petition notes that the state of Oklahoma is not opposing the application.

It states that Drummond conducted his own independent investigation into the case and decided to back Glossip’s request that his conviction be tossed out. The application argues that the conviction from his 2004 trial relies on Sneed’s credibility.

All parties have agreed that Sneed was responsible for killing Van Treese, but he made a series of contradictory statements “elicited through highly suggestive questioning” from the state investigator, including that Glossip hired him, according to the petition.

“Although this state of affairs would be troubling in any matter of consequence, Sneed’s inconsistencies are particularly problematic because the State’s case for executing Mr. Glossip turns on Sneed’s credibility. Mr. Glossip’s trial judge noted that Mr. Glossip could not have been charged with murder without Sneed’s testimony,” the application states.

Drummond also filed a petition to the court backing Glossip’s application. The attorney general said in the petition that the state concluded, after carefully reviewing new evidence and Glossip’s conviction, that the state made an error.

“Absent this Court’s intervention, an execution will move forward under circumstances where the Attorney General has already confessed error—a result that would be unthinkable. In those unprecedented circumstances, this Court should grant the application for a stay of execution,” he said.

Drummond has said he does not believe Glossip is innocent, but that he did not receive a fair trial and should receive a new one.

Glossip has been scheduled to be executed three times, only to be spared just before the sentence was to be given. He was close to being executed in September 2015 but was given a reprieve after prison officials realized they had the wrong lethal drug for the injection.

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