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U.S. Supreme Court vacates death sentence for Richard Glossip

Home News U.S. Supreme Court vacates death sentence for Richard Glossip
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed the conviction and death sentence of Oklahoma state inmate Richard Glossip, remanding the case to state court for a new trial.
Lady justice

In an opinion issued yesterday by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the five-justice majority ruling (with Justice Neil Gorsuch recused) agreed with the state’s attorney general, Mr. Glossip’s defense counsel and Reed Smith’s independent investigation that Glossip did not receive a fair trial and deserves a new one. Justice Amy Coney Barrett agreed with much of the majority’s decision but would have remanded the case to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals for further proceedings, including a possible evidentiary hearing. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

The opinion asserted the Court’s jurisdiction to review the judgment of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals and concluded that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony under Napue v. Illinois. The Court found this violation was material as it related to the testimony of the state’s key witness against Glossip who they found lied on the witness stand, and this lie went uncorrected by the prosecution despite its obligations under Napue to correct false testimony.

“We are grateful for the majority’s well-reasoned decision that brings some justice to Mr. Glossip after wrongfully suffering under the threat of capital punishment for a quarter century despite being subjected to two trials that have been found to be unfair by the courts,” said Reed Smith partner David Weiss, who co-leads the firm’s investigative team with partner Stan Perry and senior pro bono counsel Chris Walters.

“As we concluded in our original investigation report, no reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Mr. Glossip, and this was made even more clear by subsequent information that was learned since we submitted our original report, including the so-called ‘Box 8’ information relied on by the Court,” Weiss said.

The Court’s review follows a petition filed by Oklahoma state Attorney General Gentner Drummond in July 2023 confessing numerous errors in Glossip’s case and conviction. The Court granted Glossip’s cert petition on Jan. 22, 2024, and heard oral arguments last Oct. 9.

Drummond, who took office in 2023, based his requests to vacate Glossip’s sentence on newly discovered evidence, some of which had been withheld from defense counsel for 25 years. Many of these new findings were uncovered by Reed Smith’s independent investigation into Glossip’s case, and later corroborated by a thorough review of the case conducted by Drummond’s appointed special counsel, Rex Duncan.

The ruling also follows the Court’s May 5, 2023, grant of a stay of Glossip’s May 18 execution date – the ninth scheduled execution date for Glossip over the 27 years he has been on Oklahoma’s death row.

Reed Smith investigation

Reed Smith began its independent, third-party investigation into Glossip’s case in February 2022. Working with lawyers from Jackson Walker and Crowe & Dunlevy, a Reed Smith team of more than 30 lawyers, three investigators and two paralegals have devoted more than 4,000 hours, pro bono, to this investigation.

The team has since released five addendums to its initial report detailing additional findings in the ongoing investigation, including evidence withheld by state prosecutors for more than 25 years, and only released after Drummond took office.

Reed Smith’s Full Investigative Report (June 16, 2022), Executive summary (July 21, 2022), First supplemental report (Aug. 9, 2022), Second supplemental report (Aug. 23, 2022), Third supplemental report (Sep. 20, 2022), Fourth supplemental report (Oct. 18, 2022), Fifth supplemental report (March 27, 2023) are available to the public.

For more information about Reed Smith’s ongoing investigation, please read our previous releases: