Unless We Act Now, Oklahoma Will Execute An Innocent Man on May 18, 2023
New independent investigation concludes there is no reliable evidence against Richard Glossip.
New independent investigation concludes there is no reliable evidence against Richard Glossip.
Richard Glossip is on Oklahoma’s death row because the actual, admitted killer, Justin Sneed, invented a story to satisfy detectives and save himself. Sneed initially claimed he didn’t kill his boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese. But detectives said they knew he did and didn’t act alone, and if he didn’t name his accomplice, he’d be left “holding the bag” for murder.
Detectives fed Sneed a name: motel manager Richard Glossip. Sneed agreed to their suggestion, saying Glossip had enlisted him in a robbery and he’d only meant to knock Van Treese out. But then, under pressure, Sneed changed his story yet again to say Richard asked him to kill Van Treese.
Sneed’s coerced accusation, fed to him by police, that Glossip orchestrated the murder, is the only real evidence against Glossip. No DNA or fingerprints from Glossip. No eyewitnesses. Just the admitted killer’s made up story, a story that’s changed eight times.
Sneed had a clear motive for a robbery that got out of hand: he was a known thief and meth addict. But police never investigated it and a jury never heard about it.
Throughout Glossip’s case, prosecutors withheld and destroyed evidence, and intimidated and even arrested witnesses. Today, Sneed serves life in a medium security prison. And Glossip’s execution is scheduled for May 18, 2023.
But there’s hope: an independent investigation by Reed Smit LLP brought forth new evidence making it increasingly clear someone else helped Sneed commit murder, and Glossip had nothing to do with it.
Now, at the request of 35 Oklahoma state lawmakers, including 29 Republicans, a pro bono team of more than 30 attorneys from Reed Smith, a respected national litigation firm, spent over 3,000 hours conducting a rigorous independent investigation of Richard Glossip’s conviction and uncovered new evidence of his innocence – as well as serious problems with the police investigation and handling of evidence.
Their findings make clear a new hearing must be called before a fourth date could be set to kill Mr. Glossip.
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