Richard Glossip ruling isn't bellwether for death penalty: Legal expert

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed an Oklahoma death row inmate’s conviction saying prosecutors withheld crucial evidence during his murder trial, but a legal expert says the rare move shouldn’t be interpreted as any kind of shift by the highest court on death penalty cases.

The nation's highest court reversed a lower court's ruling that had upheld death row inmate Richard Glossip's murder conviction and allowed his planned execution to move forward.

In a 5-3 decision, the justices found that Glossip’s trial violated his “constitutional obligation to correct false testimony” and that “Glossip is entitled to a new trial,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the majority opinion.

The win is certainly rare and noteworthy by this court but “it's not a bellwether,” for future cases, Elisabeth Semel, a professor and co-director of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California’s Berkeley School of Law, told NewsNation.

“It doesn't suggest some sort of shift in the courts that somehow the court we thought was conservative has become less conservative," she added.

The Supreme Court holds a firm 6 to 3 majority conservative-leaning so what can be deduced about this case is that the facts were so “profoundly outrageous” that even a court that has historically been hostile to death penalty cases has ruled in favor of this defendant, Semel explained.

Richard Glossip's Conviction

Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.

The prosecution’s star witness was Glossip’s co-defendant, Justin Sneed, who admitted to robbing and killing Van Treese but testified he only did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000.

Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony and was the key witness against Glossip.

Appealing Glossip's conviction

Glossip’s attorneys argued that prosecutors knew Sneed lied on the witness stand about his psychiatric condition and his reason for taking the mood-stabilizing drug lithium. Sneed had also falsely testified that he had never seen a psychiatrist.

In 2023, Republican State Attorney General Gentner Drummond said new evidence persuaded him that Glossip’s trial was not fair. Drummond has said he does not believe Glossip is innocent and has suggested he could face a new trial.

“What makes the case particularly unusual is not its these violations, meaning prosecutors concealing exculpatory evidence or putting on false testimony, it's that the state’s highest prosecutor conceded those egregious violations,” Semel said.

Clearly that carried weight with the Supreme Court, she added.

Broader death penalty implications unlikely

Semel adds that because the facts of this case are so unique, it is unclear if it will have broader implications with lower courts or with the Supreme Court.

“I don't think it portends much about the court when you see cases with facts that are so profoundly outrageous, that it will bring much hope to defendants in cases, even cases that are also outrageous, where had there have been serious violations, but that are not identical to the case in which the Court granted relief," she said.

The victim’s family said they remain “confident that when that new trial is held, the jury will return the same verdict as in the first two trials: Guilty of first degree murder,” Paul Cassell, an attorney for the Van Treese family, said in a statement to NewsNation.

But Glossip's attorney said the ruling was a "victory for justice and fairness in our judicial system."

"Rich Glossip, who has maintained his innocence for 27 years, will now be given the chance to have the fair trial that he has always been denied,” Don Knight, an attorney for Glossip said in a statement, after the ruling.

What's next for Richard Glossip?

Glossip, who currently is housed at the maximum security Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, is expected to remain imprisoned until prosecutors decide whether to retry him, said Phil Bacharach, a spokesman Drummond.

Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said she plans to discuss with Drummond what will happen next. Behenna has previously said she would not consider the death penalty in the case.

What’s most “sobering” about the case, Semel said, is how close to execution Glossip had gotten over the years, narrowly missing death at one point due to a drug mix-up.

Oklahoma has set execution dates nine times for Glossip.

“Had things gone ‘according to plan’, he would be dead, and this would be another case that never saw the light of day in terms of the kind of relief he's now been granted,” Semel said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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