Oklahoma will not seek the death penalty for Richard Eugene Glossip in his retrial after the Supreme Court overturned his conviction, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said on June 9.
The nation’s highest court voted 5-3 on Feb. 25 to throw out Glossip’s murder conviction after the state admitted the prosecution was flawed. The court majority found that prosecutors, who were obligated to correct false testimony, had failed to do so.
Glossip was convicted of murdering his employer, Barry Van Treese, in 1997 while working as manager of an Oklahoma City motel. Justin Sneed, also convicted in the killing, was given life imprisonment without parole in a plea deal that required him to testify against his co-worker. Glossip admitted he assisted Sneed in concealing the murder after the fact.
At the time of the murder, Sneed was a methamphetamine addict whom Glossip had hired to do maintenance work at the motel. Sneed told police that Glossip offered him $10,000 to kill Van Treese. Sneed received life imprisonment with no possibility of parole, while Glossip was sentenced to death for first-degree murder.
After Drummond later discovered that prosecutors had withheld materials from the defense, he supported Glossip’s bid to secure a new trial.
Drummond told The Epoch Times his office is not pursuing the death penalty against Glossip because Sneed, who admitted to killing Van Treese, is already serving a life sentence.
Drummond said that Glossip’s upcoming trial will be conducted fairly.
“While it was clear to me and to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial, I have never proclaimed his innocence,” Drummond said.
Enough evidence exists to win a murder conviction in the case, he said.
“Unlike past prosecutors who allowed a key witness to lie on the stand, my office will make sure Mr. Glossip receives a fair trial based on hard facts, solid evidence and truthful testimony,” the attorney general said.
Drummond said he is pursuing a sentence of life imprisonment against Glossip, who has already been incarcerated for 27 years.
He added that on June 9, Oklahoma County District Judge Heather Coyle scheduled Glossip’s next court appearance for June 17. Glossip remains in prison after his conviction was overturned.
In the Supreme Court opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the state’s previously withheld evidence showed that Sneed had bipolar disorder.
Given his ailment, Sneed’s drug use “could have caused impulsive outbursts of violence.” The state acknowledged that “a jail psychiatrist prescribed Sneed lithium to treat that condition, and that the prosecution allowed Sneed falsely to testify at trial that he had never seen a psychiatrist.”
“Because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt, the jury’s assessment of Sneed’s credibility was material and necessarily determinative,” she wrote.
The state confessed error before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and conceded that prosecutors’ “failure to correct Sneed’s testimony violated Napue v. Illinois … which held that prosecutors have a constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” Sotomayor wrote.
The Oklahoma court then misinterpreted Napue, a 1959 Supreme Court precedent, and ruled against Glossip, finding the state’s admission was not “based in law or fact,” Sotomayor said.
“Because the prosecution violated its obligations under Napue, we reverse the judgment below and remand the case for a new trial,” she wrote.
The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Glossip’s attorney, Donald R. Knight of Littleton, Colorado. No reply was received by publication time.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared June 10, 2025, in The Epoch Times.
Photo: Richard Eugene Glossip