The death penalty takes centerstage on Wednesday when Death Row inmate Richard Glossip’s case comes before the Supreme Court once again — this time with his supporters calling for a new trial.
Glossip has been a cause célèbre for the past few decades, practically ever since he was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder-for-hire of his boss, hotel owner Barry Van Treese. According to the state, Glossip’s alleged co-conspirator, teenage maintenance man Justin Sneed, beat Van Treese to death with a baseball bat in room 102 of the Best Budget Inn in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Despite being the one to wield the weapon, Sneed was given life without parole, while Glossip was bound for the death chamber.
Still, Glossip has eluded execution nine times since he was sentenced — and eaten his last meal (fish and chips, a Wendy’s Baconator, a strawberry shake, and a pizza) three times. His close calls have been one part luck, and several parts the blood, sweat, and tears of his many supporters. At the behest of Death Row abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean (of Dead Man Walking fame), lawyer Don Knight took on Glossip’s case pro bono in 2014. And, in 2015, the inmate’s death was delayed due to a U.S. Supreme Court Case he helmed called Glossip v. Gross. The case focused on the 2014 botched execution of Clayton Lockett, who regained consciousness during the lethal injection procedure.
After the Supreme Court ruled against Glossip and his cohorts, he was scheduled to die yet against in September of 2015. The next stay came in — from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals — three hours before he was to be executed, this time to examine an innocence petition drawn up by Knight asking for another hearing. His date was moved once more to later that month, but once the state realized they had the wrong drug to go through with the execution (potassium acetate — a chemical used to de-ice airplane wings — instead of potassium chloride) the Oklahoma death penalty process was shuttered for the next six years to evaluate procedures.
New protocols were announced in March 2020, but were largely unchanged, according to an attorney supporting inmates in their fight to change the execution process. Namely, the procedure still included midazolam, a drug that inmates and their supporters claim does not effectively render prisoners unconscious, leading to a painful death.
When executions were resumed in 2021, Glossip was given a new date in September 2022. That date was rescheduled several times as his supporters continued to fight for him. In February 2022, 30 attorneys from law firm Reed Smith — at the behest of 35 Oklahoma state lawmakers, including 29 Republicans — started an independent investigation into Glossip’s case, which allegedly uncovered several potential issues. The report, which was presented to Attorney General Gentner Drummond, alleged that prosecutors had evidence that Sneed was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in prison, which was not disclosed to the defense. Sneed was also prescribed lithium. That diagnosis, the report alleges, along with the lithium treatment, could make Sneed an unreliable witness.
Glossip had two trials, one after which his lawyer, Wayne Fournerat, admitted that he was unprepared for a homicide case. “I have been criticized a great deal for representing Richard Glossip. I sucked at it, you know. I was terrible at it,” he said in the documentary Killing Richard Glossip. The second trial went just as poorly, as his lawyers failed to introduce Sneed’s confession tape as evidence. (Many supporters claimed the video depicts authorities leading the teen to implicate Glossip.)
In light of these unearthed errors, the state asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to order Glossip a new trial. The state court denied Glossip relief, but after much back and forth, the Supreme Court granted him a stay and agreed to hear his case in May 2023.
“Today feels like another answered prayer, both Richard and I are deeply grateful for this opportunity and for everyone who has worked so hard to get us to this point. We continue to lean on our faith,” Glossip’s wife, Lea, told Rolling Stone at the time.
Glossip with his wife, Lea.
Courtesy of Lea Glossip
Over the next few months, lawyers for Attorney General Gentner Drummond and Glossip will battle it out with prosecutor Christopher Michel over whether the 61-year-old truly deserves a new trial. Drummond, a Republican who is generally in favor of the Death Penalty, told the court that Glossip’s case had “serious instances of prosecutorial misconduct.” Still, not everyone is on Glossip’s side — including attorney generals from seven states and Van Treese’s family, who have always called for Glossip’s execution.
“Over these many years our family has endured all manner of pain as a result of the death of Barry,” his sister Alana Mileto said statement to Tulsa World. “The Van Treese family knows with absolute certainty the State of Oklahoma has provided the opportunity for justice to be served in this case. … We have a right as a family and as citizens of the United States of America to expect justice to be served.”
A decision will likely be announced in this case next summer. Meanwhile, as Glossip told Rolling Stone in 2021, he’s just trying to stay positive: “Too often people come in here and they just lay on their bunks and say, ‘You know what? I’m done.’ … And I try to encourage people that there’s always hope. Look at me, I survived three executions.”
The Death Penalty has been a hot topic as the country heads toward another presidential election in which the Republican candidate is rallying for the return of the firing squad and the Democratic ticket removed all mention of the issue from their platform. In Oklahoma alone, three men have been executed in 2024, the most recent being Emmanuel Littlejohn, who was recommended clemency by the state’s pardon and parole board for his role in a 1992 robbery-murder. Regardless, he was executed on Sept. 26. Littlejohn was one of five men killed in a seven-day-period last month — including Marcellus Williams, who was also recommended clemency.