February 27, 2025

Supreme Court grants new trial in Oklahoma death row murder-for-hire case

On February 25, 2025, the Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Richard Glossip. Glossip was convicted for his role in the murder of Barry Van Treese, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat by Justin Sneed.

In exchange for a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, Sneed testified that he killed Van Treese at Glossip's direction. Sneed claimed Glossip promised to pay Sneed $10,000 to carry out the murder. Glossip's first conviction was overturned after defense counsel failed to adequately challenge Sneed's testimony tying Glossip to the crime Sneed carried out unassisted.

Glossip was then tried a second time and convicted again, with Sneed's sometimes-inconsistent testimony playing a critical role. Glossip filed several petitions for writs of habeas corpus, alleging, among other things, that the State failed to disclose weaknesses in Sneed's testimony or appeared to pressure Sneed to prevent him recanting his statements about the crime. Those efforts failed and Glossip remained on death row.

Then the Oklahoma Attorney General then discovered evidence that the prosecution's attorneys knowingly elicited and failed to correct testimony from Sneed regarding his mental health history, including his denial that he saw a psychiatrist, diagnosed as bipolar, or prescribed lithium as treatment. The prosecutor's handwritten notes from pretrial interviews with Sneed proved that the prosecution knew Sneed was lying about his mental health.

Despite the Attorney General supporting Sneed's subsequent request for a new trial, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals once again denied his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court held that failing to correct the false testimony of the State's key witness resulted in a due process violation, and that there is a reasonable likelihood that correcting the false testimony would have affected the judgment of the jury. As a result of those findings, the Court granted Glossip a new trial.

Read the USA Today's reporting on the case here.

Want To Learn More? Click below to read other posts by Larman Law in Heath, Texas: