Richard Eugene Glossip (born February 9, 1963) is an American prisoner currently on death row[2] at Oklahoma State Penitentiary after being convicted of commissioning the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese.
[3] The man who murdered Van Treese, Justin Sneed (age 19 when he committed the crime), had a "meth habit" and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for testifying against Glossip.
[12][13] Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt ordered a multicounty grand jury investigation of the execution drug mix-up.
[15] In 2001, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously threw out that conviction, calling the case "extremely weak" and finding Glossip had received unconstitutionally ineffective assistance of counsel.
[15] Glossip's legal team asserts that Justin Sneed was addicted to methamphetamine at the time that he murdered Van Treese, and that he habitually broke into vehicles in the parking lot of the Best Budget Inn while he was employed as a maintenance man.
[22] On September 24, 2015, the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office filed papers stating that the claims of the new witnesses were "inherently suspect," and that the time it took Van Treese to die and whether blood loss contributed to his death did not affect the trial outcome, in response to a defense claim that the testimony of Dr. Chai Choi, who performed the autopsy, was incorrect.
[24][25][26] Presiding Judge Clancy Smith wrote "While finality of judgment is important, the state has no interest in executing an actually innocent man.
An evidentiary hearing will give Glossip the chance to prove his allegations that Sneed has recanted, or demonstrate to the court that he cannot provide evidence that would exonerate him."
[30][31] Ultimately, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin did grant Glossip a stay of execution the same day, citing discrepancies with the lethal injection protocol (see next section).
[34] In 2022, Oklahoma state representative Kevin McDugle, a Republican, said "he would fight to end the death penalty if Glossip dies.
[clarification needed] The Council has also "actively sought to undermine Prater’s successor, Vicki Behenna, the county’s first female elected DA."
[44][45][46] On October 1, 2015, Attorney General Scott Pruitt asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to issue an indefinite stay of all scheduled executions in Oklahoma, citing the Department of Correction's acquisition of a drug contrary to protocol.
[48] On October 6, 2015, Governor Mary Fallin said she hired an independent attorney, Robert McCampbell, to advise her on the legal process.
[49] On October 8, 2015, it was reported that Oklahoma Corrections Department officials used potassium acetate to execute Charles Frederick Warner on January 15, 2015, contrary to protocol.
[51] Glossip was the named plaintiff in Glossip v. Gross, a U.S. Supreme Court case decided in June 2015 in which a divided Court ruled 5–4 with Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Roberts, and Anthony Kennedy voting to allow the execution to proceed, and Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg voting to halt it.
Sotomayor wrote, "But under the court's new rule, it would not matter whether the state intended to use midazolam, or instead to have petitioners drawn and quartered, slowly tortured to death or actually burned at the stake.
[56][57] On November 3, 2022, Governor Stitt again granted a stay of execution for Glossip, allowing time for the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to address his pending legal proceedings.
[59] In March, Drummond announced his office would seek to stay the execution until 2024 to allow an independent counsel to review the case.
[61] Drummond did not "proclaim Glossip’s innocence, but he did note in a news release there was enough doubt of his guilt that the death penalty and his conviction for murder is inappropriate.
This ruling meant that barring clemency being granted or any further appeals to the US Supreme Court, Glossip would be executed by lethal injection on May 18.
In May 2023, Glossip's attorneys filed an application for stay of execution to the U.S. Supreme Court citing new evidence that has come to light which sheds doubt on the reliability of the state's star witness Justin Sneed, the man who was convicted of actually carrying out the murder of Barry Van Treese.