PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Glossip was convicted of ordering the beating death of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese in 1997 and was sentenced to die. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted to robbing and beating Van Treese with a baseball bat, but said he did so only after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed, who was sentenced to life in prison, was the prosecution’s key witness in the case against Glossip. Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said he’s uncovered new evidence in the case, including accounts from people who said Sneed acknowledged carrying out the crime himself and implicated Glossip only to save himself from the death penalty. “The truth is, this case was never properly investigated at all,” Knight said. “The police did very little.” Knight said because Oklahoma law makes it so difficult for an appellate court to review a death penalty conviction, Glossip’s only hope at avoiding execution may be a clemency hearing before the Pardon and Parole Board, which could recommend that the governor commutes his sentence to life in prison. "
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Oklahoma once had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers, but a moratorium on capital punishment has been in place since 2015 following three consecutive flawed executions. Glossip himself was just hours away from being executed in 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug. Separately, lawyers for Glossip and several other death row inmates are challenging the state’s lethal injection protocols in a case in federal court in Oklahoma City."
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STORY: "Republican lawmaker seeks review of death penalty conviction," by Reporter Sean Murphy, published by Associated Press News on May 17, 2021.
GIST: "A Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma who supports the death penalty said Monday he and several of his GOP colleagues are seeking an independent investigation into the conviction of death row inmate Richard Glossip.
In a letter state Rep. Kevin McDugle has drafted to Gov. Kevin Stitt and the head of the state’s Pardon and Parole Board, McDugle said he believes new evidence suggests the now 58-year-old Glossip may be innocent.
“We appreciate how difficult decisions like this are and know how seriously you take them,” McDugle wrote. “Many of those who have signed this letter support the death penalty but, as such, we have a moral obligation to make sure the State of Oklahoma never executes a person for a crime he did not commit.”
McDugle said he’s invited several of his colleagues to a dinner Wednesday night to review details of the case and that he expects more than a dozen of his colleagues will sign the letter.
Glossip was convicted of ordering the beating death of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese in 1997 and was sentenced to die. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted to robbing and beating Van Treese with a baseball bat, but said he did so only after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed, who was sentenced to life in prison, was the prosecution’s key witness in the case against Glossip.
Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, said he’s uncovered new evidence in the case, including accounts from people who said Sneed acknowledged carrying out the crime himself and implicated Glossip only to save himself from the death penalty.
“The truth is, this case was never properly investigated at all,” Knight said. “The police did very little.”
Knight said because Oklahoma law makes it so difficult for an appellate court to review a death penalty conviction, Glossip’s only hope at avoiding execution may be a clemency hearing before the Pardon and Parole Board, which could recommend that the governor commutes his sentence to life in prison.
Knight also complained that Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater has failed to turn over all of the evidence collected in the case, including notes from the original detectives, a video tape from a nearby gas station and the results of a polygraph test administered to Glossip.
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, whose office prosecuted Glossip before Prater took office, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about Knight’s comments. But Prater has said previouslythat he’s confident in Glossip’s guilt and that, if necessary, he would retry Glossip and seek the death penalty.
Oklahoma once had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers, but a moratorium on capital punishment has been in place since 2015 following three consecutive flawed executions. Glossip himself was just hours away from being executed in 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug.
Separately, lawyers for Glossip and several other death row inmates are challenging the state’s lethal injection protocols in a case in federal court in Oklahoma City."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
