Sunday, September 13, 2015

Bulletin: Richard Glossip; Oklahoma; Major development: His defence team will present the media tomorrow (Monday September 14) with "new evidence" they believe strengthen the case that key prosecution witness Justin Sneed - (who) "by himself, beat Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat in Room 102 of the Best Budget Inn" - "lied to save his life." According to the defence lawyers, “The prosecutors conceded in argument at trial: ‘the physical evidence doesn’t directly implicate Mr. Glossip.’ Therefore, the scheduled execution is based upon Sneed’s testimony and credibility alone.” The "new evidence," set out in a lengthy memorandum released to reporters worldwide, includes a new report which "casts serious doubt on the testimony of the prosecutor's medical examiner." Execution scheduled for Wednesday, September 16, qt 3.00 PM.


Countdown to Wrongful Conviction Day:  Friday, October 2,  2105; 19 days. For information: http://www.aidwyc.org/wcd-2015/

"(City Sentinel) Editor’s Note: This week, attorneys Don Knight, Mark Olive and Kathleen Lord, who are working to establish Richard Glossip’s innocence – released a lengthy memorandum to reporters worldwide. The memo outlined new evidence in the case they are making for Glossip’s innocence. They and others fighting to stop Glossip’s execution are asking for more time to continue their investigations. Introducing the memo to reporters via email, the attorneys wrote: “In the early morning hours of January 7, 1997, Justin Sneed, by himself, beat Barry Van Treese to death with a baseball bat in Room 102 of the Best Budget Inn, a motel in Oklahoma City owned by Mr. Van Treese. Upon arrest, he first denied any involvement in or knowledge of the murder. Over the course of a long interrogation by two detectives, Sneed was pressured to implicate Richard Glossip, the manager of the hotel, and was fed details which, if he adopted them, would help him. “Sneed finally adopted the detectives’ story and agreed, in exchange for a life sentence for the murder he alone committed, to testify that Mr. Glossip was the mastermind of the plot to murder Mr. Van Treese to steal money from his car. Based upon Sneed’s testimony, Mr. Glossip is scheduled to be executed Wednesday, September 16, at 3:00 p.m. “The prosecutors conceded in argument at trial: ‘the physical evidence doesn’t directly implicate Mr. Glossip.’ Therefore, the scheduled execution is based upon Sneed’s testimony and credibility alone.” Don Knight and leaders of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OK-CADP) will meet with reporters on Monday, September 14 at 10 a.m. in the 2nd floor Supreme Court Hallway at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. Here is the summary Knight and his colleagues provided to the news media on Friday, September 11. They believe it strengthens the case that “Mr. Sneed lied to save his own life.” Evidence includes the following: 1.1 The use of interrogation techniques proven to elicit false statements;  Richard A. Leo, Ph.D., J.D., is the national, leading expert on police-induced false confessions and erroneous convictions. … Dr. Leo evaluated the circumstances of Mr. Sneed’s interrogations and concluded, based upon decades of social science research, that law enforcement in this case used the “personal and situational factors associated with, and believed to cause, false confessions.” For example: “The suggestion that Richard Glossip was involved in the homicide of Barry Van Treese first came from investigators, not Justin Sneed. The investigators feed Justin Sneed their theory that Richard Glossip was the mastermind of this homicide, and they repeatedly tell him that Richard Glossip was putting the crime on him;” Interrogators “repeatedly tell him that he will be the scapegoat for the crime if he does not confess, implying that he will receive the harshest punishment if he does not confess to it; they repeatedly suggest that Richard Glossip is the one who put him up to it; and they tell him that he can get this straightened out;” Interrogators “presumed the guilt of Richard Glossip from almost the start and sought to pressure and persuade Justin Sneed to implicate Richard Glossip.” “The investigators repeatedly lied to Justin Sneed by telling him that multiple people or witnesses had implicated him in the murder.” Dr. Leo’s report explains the science behind why techniques such as these create “the suspect’s perception that he is trapped, there is no way out, and that his conviction will be inevitable, thus leading to the perception that he has little choice but to agree to or negotiate the best available outcome or mitigation of punishment given the subjective reality of his situation.” Such tactics “are substantially likely to increase the risk of eliciting false statements, admissions, and or confessions.” Finally, Dr. Leo notes Sneed’s “multiple, inconsistent, and contradictory accounts of the crime” which is consistent with a guilty person “falsely implicating an innocent third part as an accomplice.” 1.2 Sneed habitually broke into cars and hotel rooms to support his addiction to methamphetamine The state portrayed Sneed as a hapless dupe who had taken methamphetamine, but “he didn’t use it that often.” The state asked: “Why would he need that much money?” Mr. Glossip’s legal team has newly discovered evidence never before presented that casts serious doubt on this key part of the prosecution’s case. According to one of Sneed’s drug dealers at the time, Sneed on his own, habitually broke into peoples’ cars and motel rooms to take property to support his severe drug addition. (Affidavit provided); . 1.4 A new defense report casts serious doubt on the testimony of the prosecution’s medical examiner. As reported by Phil Cross at KOKH FOX 25 on September 10, 2015, jurors in the second trial report being misled by the testimony of medical examiner Choi as to the length of time that Mr. Van Treese survived after Sneed’s attack. The new report is consistent with Mr. Sneed’s statements that he waited to leave until he saw Mr. Van Treese take his last breath. At the press conference [on Monday, September 14], Mr. Knight will talk about what this information means to the case against Mr. Glossip, and will provide further details uncovered in this investigation, including new expert reports and a new key witness who will discuss statements made by Mr. Sneed after Mr. Sneed put Mr. Glossip on death row."
http://city-sentinel.com/2015/09/new-evidence-in-glossip-case-will-be-presented-monday-september-14-by-legal-defense-team-member-don-knight/