Supreme Court orders new trial for Oklahoma death row inmate

The US Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma man on death row.

The court ruled 5-3 in favour of Glossip, reversing an Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruling.

The move comes after the state’s Republican attorney general joined Glossip in calling for a new trial.

Glossip, 62, was convicted in the 1997 murder of the owner of an Oklahoma City motel where he worked. He has had nine execution dates postponed, and eaten his “last meal” three times.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote Tuesday’s opinion for the court and was joined by fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, both conservatives, also joined the opinion.

Justice Neil Gorsuch did not join in the case.

“We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” Sotomayor said.

Glossip has always maintained his innocence.

His boss, Barry Van Treese, owner of the Oklahoma City motel, was beaten to death in 1997.

Glossip’s colleague, Justin Sneed, was convicted of the killing, but said Glossip had told him to carry out the murder.

It has since emerged that prosecutors did not disclose that Sneed had been treated for a serious psychiatric condition.

Glossip was first convicted in 1998, but that was overturned in 2001. He was convicted again three years later.

In 2015, just a few steps away from the execution chamber, his execution was halted to review the lethal injection drugs.

In 2023, the Supreme Court intervened after Oklahoma’s attorney general and Glossip asked for a new trial.

A number of big names have backed Glossip’s efforts in the past including Pope Francis, Kim Kardashian and Sir Richard Branson.