WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the murder conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man who was found guilty in the killing of a motel owner but has steadfastly maintained his innocence and averted multiple attempts by the state to execute him. Glossip’s wife, Lea, called the decision “an answered prayer.” Prosecutors’ failure to turn over evidence that might have bolstered Glossip’s defense violated his constitutional right to a fair trial, the justices ruled in a case that produced a rare alliance of his lawyers and the state’s Republican attorney general in support of a new day in court for Glossip.
“Glossip is entitled to a new trial,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for five justices. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented, voting to uphold the conviction and death sentence, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett would have allowed a state appeals court to decide how to proceed. Thomas wrote that the majority had “cast aside the family’s interests.” The victim’s relatives had told the high court that they wanted to see Glossip executed.
Don Knight, Glossip’s attorney, said the court was right to overturn the conviction because prosecutors hid critical evidence from the defense team. “Today was a victory for justice and fairness in our judicial system,” Knight said in a statement. “Rich Glossip, who has maintained his innocence for 27 years, will now be given the chance to have the fair trial that he has always been denied.”
Glossip’s wife wrote in a text to The Associated Press, “Rich and I opened the decision together on the phone this morning, knowing it would be a life-changing moment. To say that we are overcome with emotion is an understatement. We are deeply grateful. Today is truly an answered prayer.” Justice Neil Gorsuch did not take part in the case, presumably because he participated in it at an earlier stage when he was an appeals court judge. Oklahoma’s top criminal appeals court had repeatedly upheld the conviction and sentence, even after the state sided with Glossip.
Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme. Glossip has always denied killing Van Treese, although he acknowledged misleading investigators in the aftermath of the crime. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat but testified he only did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony and was the key witness against Glossip.
In 2023, state Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, said boxes of new evidence persuaded him that Glossip’s trial was not fair. Drummond has said he does not believe Glossip is innocent and has suggested he could face a new trial. If Glossip were to be tried again, the death penalty would be off the table, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna, a Democrat, has said. The new evidence showed that prosecutors knew Sneed lied on the witness stand about his psychiatric condition and his reason for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium, Sotomayor wrote. Drummond also was concerned about a box of evidence in the case that was destroyed, she wrote. The evidence included motel receipts, a shower curtain and masking tape that Knight has said could have potentially proven Glossip’s innocence.
At least five justices voted last year to block efforts to execute Glossip while his case played out. That was just the latest reprieve for a death row inmate who has eaten three “last meals” and been married twice while awaiting execution. Oklahoma has set execution dates nine times for Glossip. The court faced two legal issues, whether Glossip’s rights were violated because the evidence wasn’t turned over and whether the Oklahoma court decision upholding the conviction and sentence, reached after the state’s position changed, should be allowed to stand.
The justices issued their most recent order blocking Glossip’s execution last year. They previously stopped his execution in 2015, then ruled against him by a 5-4 vote in upholding Oklahoma’s lethal-injection process. Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan, also part of Tuesday’s majority, dissented 10 years ago. Glossip avoided execution then only because of a mix-up in the drugs that were to be used.
Glossip was initially convicted in 1998 but won a new trial ordered by a state appeals court. He was convicted again in 2004.
