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Death row inmate Richard Glossip accuses prosecutor of flagrant misconduct at retrial

Death row inmate Richard Glossip challenged his conviction again Thursday, this time alleging a prosecutor at his 2004 retrial got the key witness to change his testimony "to patch up holes in the state's case."

"She knew she had a problem," his attorney, Don Knight, said at a news conference. "So she fixed it. She fixed the testimony."

Glossip filed his challenge at the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Judges there already are considering a challenge filed July 1.

The new challenge came on the same day Glossip had been scheduled to be executed at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Gov. Kevin Stitt in August granted a stay to give the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals more time to decide if Glossip deserves an an evidentiary hearing.

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Glossip, 59, is now set to die by lethal injection on Dec. 8 for the murder of his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. He claims he is innocent.

His attorney accused prosecutor Connie Pope of flagrant misconduct at the retrial. The prosecutor, now known by her married name Connie Smothermon, declined comment.

Glossip's innocent claim has received widespread support, most recently from conservative pro-death penalty legislators in Oklahoma. One outspoken supporter, state Rep. Kevin McDugle, R- Broken Arrow, has vowed to fight to abolish the death penalty in the state if Glossip is executed.

At the news conference Thursday, Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, said, "I am a strong proponent of the death penalty. But we should always make sure that we're 100%, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are executing the right person."

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Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, center, speaks during a February 2022 news conference to discuss updates regarding the case of death row inmate Richard Glossip at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City.
Kevin McDugle, R-Broken Arrow, center, speaks during a February 2022 news conference to discuss updates regarding the case of death row inmate Richard Glossip at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City.

Humphrey said a prosecutor should never tailor testimony. "I want to call for an investigation," the legislator said. "I don't think that we should just let this go. ... This is unacceptable. ... Why would you do that? Why would you manufacture evidence?"

At issue is the testimony of a motel maintenance man, Justin Sneed, who confessed to killing the motel owner with a baseball bat.

The victim was found beaten to death in Room 102 of his motel, the Best Budget Inn, on Jan. 7, 1997. Van Treese was 54 and lived in Lawton.

Sneed said Glossip pressured him into doing it and offered him $10,000 as payment. Sneed said Glossip was worried about being fired when Van Treese discovered motel rooms had not been remodeled.

Glossip contends the maintenance man killed the motel owner during a botched robbery for drug money and then implicated him to avoid the death penalty.

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At the retrial, Sneed testified for the first time that "at one point ... I took my knife out of my pocket and tried to force it through his chest but it didn't go." He had told police he had not used the knife found at the crime scene.

Glossip's attorneys told the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals that the prosecutor orchestrated false testimony after a medical examiner testified the victim had cut marks. "If Sneed did not use the pocketknife, then somebody else must have been inside the room, and that flatly contradicted the state's case that rested on Sneed's account of committing the murder alone," the attorneys wrote in their request for relief.

The attorneys told the appeals court they found a letter proving the misconduct during a Sept. 1 review of prosecutors' files on the case. In the letter, the prosecutor wrote Sneed's attorney that she "needed to discuss with Justin" a few items that had come up in testimony at the retrial.

"Our biggest problem is still the knife," the prosecutor wrote.

The attorneys also allege the prosecutor failed to disclose to defense attorneys at the retrial that Sneed had talked of recanting.

In a recently uncovered letter, Sneed had written his own attorney in 2003 about recanting. "And parts of me are curious that if I choose to do this again, Do I have the choice of recanting my testimony at anytime during my life, or anything like that," he wrote.

Sneed now claims that he was only talking about renegotiating his plea deal for his role in the murder.

After the news conference, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater criticized Knight.

"Professional attorneys handle matters in courtrooms before judges, not by calling press conferences," the DA said. "Attorney General John O'Connor's office is handling this matter for the State of Oklahoma. I have full confidence in him and his attorneys to respond appropriately in a court of law, before a judge."

O'Connor said Sneed continues to stand by his testimony and has told his family, "It's the truth."

"It is disappointing that Glossip’s supporters are criticizing law enforcement, prosecutors, juries and judges in an attempt to distract the public from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of Glossip’s guilt," the attorney general said.

Glossip was first sent to death row after being convicted in 1998. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new murder trial because his defense attorney failed to represent him adequately. He was sent to death row again after the 2004 retrial.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Death row inmate Richard Glossip files new challenge to conviction