Oklahoma AG Moves To Vacate Conviction Of Obviously Innocent Death Row Inmate Richard Glossip

PHEW.

On January 7, 1997, just outside of Oklahoma City, a 19-year-old maintenance worker with a meth problem named Justin Sneed brutally murdered Barry Van Treese, the owner of the Best Budget Inn where he worked. He then went to the room of Richard Glossip, the live-in manager of the motel, told him some story about drunks breaking a window, and then said that he killed Van Treese. Glossip thought Sneed was fucking with him and went back to sleep. But the next morning, Van Treese's body was found at the foot of the waterbed in Room 102.

Detectives Bob Bemo and Bill Cook, who interviewed Glossip after the body was discovered, didn't like his attitude, so when they finally brought Sneed in, they more or less told him that he could escape the death penalty if he said that Glossip hired him to do it. There is actual video footage of this.Sneed, being a meth addict, came up with a bizarre and convoluted story about how Glossip had pressured him for months to kill Van Treese — both because Glossip was "embezzling" money from the motel (he was not) and because he thought if Barry Van Treese were dead, Mrs. Van Treese would put Glossip in charge of all of the motels they owned and let Sneed run one as well. Sneed, who regularly stole from visitors at the motel to feed his drug habit, said that Glossip told him that if he murdered Van Treese, they could split the money Van Treese had with him in his car.

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In another version of the story, also concocted by the brilliant Detective Bob Bemo, Sneed didn't even intend to kill Van Treese and things simply went awry when he was trying to rob him — which really doesn't comport with the whole "murder for hire" thing.

As a result of Sneed's story, not one other iota of evidence, some egregiously ineffective counsel, and the state literally withholding an entire box of exculpatory evidence from Glossip's very ineffective counsel ("Box 8") , Richard Glossip was found guilty of a "murder for hire" plot and sentenced to death. Twice. He's had several execution dates, all of which have been postponed for one reason or another. He was scheduled again to be put to death on May 18 of this year.

However, following an independent investigation, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has filed a motion to vacate Glossip's conviction.

“The State has reached the difficult conclusion that justice requires setting aside Glossip’s conviction and remanding the case to the district court,” states the April 6 motion.

“After thorough and serious deliberation," Drummond explained, "I have concluded that I cannot stand behind the murder conviction and death sentence of Richard Glossip,” he said. “This is not to say I believe he is innocent. However, it is critical that Oklahomans have absolute faith that the death penalty is administered fairly and with certainty. Considering everything I know about this case, I do not believe that justice is served by executing a man based on the testimony of a compromised witness.”

This is just ... incredibly good news.

Now, Glossip is not entirely free just yet, but as long as the conviction is successfully vacated, he will get another trial, at which the evidence can be presented and other witnesses can testify — including, perhaps, Justine Sneed, Justin Sneed's daughter, who has actual letters from her father talking about how he feels guilty and wants to confess but is afraid he'll get the death penalty if he does.

Hopefully, with all of the attention that is now on this case, the court won't be able to pull any of the shenanigans it did last time, like forcing Glossip to replace the lawyers who had been working on his case (by claiming they had "threatened" Sneed) with someone with absolutely no prior knowledge of it right before the trial started.

It will be wonderful if Glossip gets out now, but he's spent over 20 years of his life behind bars for deeply stupid reasons, and that should scare the absolute shit out of every one of us. Because if it can happen to him, it can happen to you.

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