New Evidence Makes Death Row Inmate Richard Glossip Look Even More Innocent

Glossip is scheduled to be executed on September 22.

September 22, Oklahoma plans to execute Richard Glossip, a man absolutely no one claims ever killed anyone, ever. He is also almost definitely innocent of the crime the state says he committed — murder-for-hire — least of all because even the thing they say he did could not reasonably be called murder-for-hire by anyone remotely familiar with what a murder-for-hire plot even is. The only evidence they have is the word of Justin Sneed, the meth addict who actually committed the murder for which Glossip is about to be executed.

This will be Glossip's fourth execution date. The first three were postponed because Oklahoma just could not stop botching executions in horrific ways. Things were so bad the state was forced to take a six-year hiatus from executions, and just started them up again last year, starting with John Marion Grant, who died vomiting and convulsing in yet another botched execution.

Since Glossip's last execution date, a documentary series about the case, Killing Richard Glossip, came out, resulting in thousands of people across the country becoming aware of the absolute absurdity of his case. It's so patently obvious that 61 members of the Oklahoma legislature, the majority of them pro-death penalty, signed a petition asking GOP Governor Kevin Stitt and Attorney General John O'Connor to postpone his execution in order to fully review the case. They have been led primarily by Rep. Kevin McDugle, a Republican and otherwise terrible person who loves the death penalty, but who believes in Glossip's innocence and says that if Glossip is executed he will make it his personal mission to get rid of the death penalty in Oklahoma.

Hoping to find a basis for granting Glossip a new trial, Oklahoma lawmakers asked Texas law firm Reed Smith to investigate his case. After 30 lawyers logged 3,000 pro bono hours, they concluded that Glossip's “2004 trial cannot be relied on to support a murder-for-hire-conviction. Nor can it provide a basis for the government to take [Glossip's life].”

One of the things Reed Smith discovered is a letter from Justin Sneed to the public defender's office, suggesting he wanted to recant his testimony from the trial, plus the letter Gina Walker of the public defender's office sent back, saying that if he did that, he would end up on death row.

“There are a lot of things eating at me right now. There are somethings [ sic ] I need to clean up," Sneed wrote in his letter, which is contained in a new supplemental report from Reed Smith. “I’m going to try to contact the indigent defense over his case or the D.A.’s,” adding “I think you know were [ sic ] I’m going it was a mistake. Reliving this.”

Walker responded:

I can tell by the tone of your letter that some things are bothering you. I know that it was very hard for you to testify at the second trial. I also know that OIDS lawyers tried to talk you out of it - acting totally against your best interests to the benefit of their client. Had you refused, you would most likely be on death row right now. Mr. Glossip has had two opportunities to save himself and has declined to do so both times. I hope he has not or his lawyers have not tried to make you feel responsible for the outcome of his case and his decisions. If you need to discuss this further let me know.

This all lines up with the 2014 letter Sneed's daughter, O'Ryan Justine Sneed, wrote to the state asking for clemency for Glossip, which flat out said they had talked for many years about how Sneed wantede to recant his testimony, but wouldn't because he didn't want to get the death penalty himself.

Because this whole thing just freaking confounds me, just allow me to lay out exactly what detectives and prosecutors insist happened here. 

The theory is that Barry Van Treese -- the owner of the Best Budget Inn, where Sneed worked, and which Glossip managed -- and his wife believed Glossip was embezzling money, and had threatened to report him to the police. Despite this, they kept him on as an employee, like you do.

Detectives and prosecutors maintain that Glossip was incredibly charming and had a Svengali-like hold on poor meth-addicted itinerant maintenance worker Justin Sneed, which rendered him able to manipulate Sneed into doing just about anything (apart from convincing him to regularly show up for work or to stop robbing the cars of motel guests).

Glossip, they claim, was afraid the Van Treeses would send him to prison for embezzling the money it would later turn out he definitely did not embezzle, he spent months constantly haranguing Sneed and asking him to murder Van Treese. His offer? For Sneed to kill Van Treese and then split whatever money Van Treese had in his car among the two of them. You know, just how murder-for-hire plots normally go.

They believe that Glossip told Sneed that he had a whole lot of influence over Van Treese's wife (you know, the one accusing him of embezzling), and that if Van Treese is out of the picture she will probably let him be in charge of all of the motels they own, and let Sneed manage one himself.

To be fair, in some versions of the story they claim Glossip offered to pay Sneed $10,000, which makes even less sense when you consider that their lone piece of evidence outside of Sneed's testimony is that police found $1,200 in cash on him.

In this version, Sneed finally succumbs to the pressure and kills Van Treese and steals his money. He keeps a stack of bloody bills for himself and then gives Glossip $1,200 non-bloody dollars.He leaves $23,100 dollars in the trunk, much of which was covered in blue dye, the kind that frequently explodes all over money from a bank robbery, and then gets out of Dodge.

Soon enough, police come and talk to people at the motel, investigate the scene and then bring Glossip down for questioning. Detective Bob Bemo immediately dislikes Glossip and takes this as a for-sure sign that he definitely had something to do with the murder. But no matter how long they interrogate him, Glossip refuses to admit it, which makes Det. Bemo even more sure he committed the crime. Glossip also says he's pretty sure Justin Sneed killed Van Treese.

Eventually, police find Sneed and bring him in for questioning, whereupon Det. Bemo immediately reassures him they know he didn't do this alone and shouldn't hang by himself for this, graciously offering up that they have also arrested Glossip. Sneed feigns surprise and then, after the detectives tell him he will be rewarded for giving up his co-conspirator and give him an explanation for how it could have all gone down, confirms they are right and that Glossip orchestrated the whole thing.

Det. Bemo also contends, by the way, that although Richard Glossip definitely hired Justin Sneed to kill Barry Van Treese, Sneed only ever intended to rob him, not kill him, and the whole thing just got out of hand.

And that is literally their whole case, not including any exculpatory evidence (which by the way was not even included in his first trial). Twelve people heard this and thought, "Yes, this whole thing makes sense to me and I have no further questions. Execute the bastatrd."

The whole thing is just so galling . The more you find out about the case the more you just want to scream into your pillow. If you haven't seen it, you can watch Killing Richard Glossip for free on Discovery+ or for $9.99 on Amazon. I highly recommend it both because it is very good and because I am probably going to spend then next 37 days yelling about this and I would love some company.

Hopefully Governor Stitt and whoever else has any power in this matter will just take the letters as the out they need to stop this, and not embarrass themselves by executing an obviously innocent person.

[ Guardian / Reed Smith ]

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