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Today, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the conviction and death penalty for Richard Glossip. He's an Oklahoma man who's maintained his innocence for more than 25 years - often coming so close to execution that he ate what was supposed to be his last meal three times. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Richard Glossip has been tried and convicted twice and lost multiple appeals, including one at the Supreme Court, where one justice dismissed his claim as nothing but a, quote, "stalling tactic." But today, three of the court's conservatives joined the court's three liberals in concluding that prosecutors had denied Glossip a fair trial not once but twice. The six-justice majority said that prosecutors had violated Glossip's constitutional rights by concealing exculpatory evidence from the defense, including information about the drug use and mental status of the prosecution's star witness and by persuading that witness to change his testimony when it conflicted with his prior testimony. Glossip's lawyer, Don Knight, said that his client is beyond thrilled.
DON KNIGHT: He actually has a future that's not going to be on death row.
TOTENBERG: Prosecutors never contended that Glossip himself bludgeoned motel owner Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat. Rather, they ultimately settled on the theory that Glossip, who managed the motel, commissioned handyman Justin Sneed to murder Van Treese, the alleged motive being alternately to steal a wad of cash from the owner or to conceal embezzlement of funds. There was no physical evidence to tie Glossip to the crime, and so prosecutors initially offered to take the death penalty off the table if he testified against handyman Sneed. But when Glossip continued to maintain his innocence, the prosecution offered the deal instead to Sneed, who was sentenced to life in prison while Glossip was convicted and sentenced to die.
The case, in many ways, is as remarkable as a true crime miniseries. Most extraordinary is that Glossip's Supreme Court appeal was supported by Oklahoma's attorney general, Gentner Drummond, a conservative Republican and supporter of the death penalty. After two separate independent investigations found that both Glossip trials had been tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, Drummond took the very rare step of formally asking for a new trial. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, however, refused to accept the attorney general's so-called confession of error, and the state court maintained that its decision was not reviewable in federal court.
Today, the Supreme Court vociferously disagreed. Writing for the court majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that the prosecutors had violated their constitutional obligation to correct false testimony elicited from Sneed, the only witness who tied Glossip directly to the crime. The obligation to correct such false testimony, the court observed, is a clear violation of the court's precedents dating back more than 65 years. Joining Sotomayor in the majority were Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kagan, Kavanaugh, Jackson and, for the most part, Barrett. Justices Thomas and Alito dissented. Justice Gorsuch was recused.
Glossip's lawyer, Don Knight, gives much of the credit for today's win to Attorney General Gentner.
KNIGHT: Only he had the courage to say, we're not going to continue to try to kill this man. That's a tremendous amount of political courage for a man who is now running for governor as well. He saw something that was wrong, and he tried to make it right. And he did.
TOTENBERG: Making the case against Glossip, of course, in the future may be difficult in light of the Supreme Court's decision, especially since he's already served 27 years on death row. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
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