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By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When legal professionals for Richard Glossip argue earlier than the U.S. Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday to vacate his conviction for a 1997 homicide, the Oklahoma loss of life row inmate can have an unlikely ally: Gentner Drummond, the state’s Republican legal professional basic.
Though Drummond has taken conservative stances on points from immigration to abortion to environmental regulation, the adorned former U.S. Air Power fighter pilot broke with fellow Republican state attorneys basic in Glossip’s case after concluding prosecutors hid proof that may have led to an acquittal.
“If he’s executed, I imagine that it will likely be a travesty of justice,” Drummond mentioned in an interview.
Glossip, now 61, was convicted in 1998 of a murder-for-hire scheme. After an appeals courtroom overturned that conviction primarily based on ineffective protection counsel, Glossip once more was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide in a 2004 retrial. Glossip is asking the Supreme Courtroom to grant him a brand new trial after an Oklahoma courtroom refused to overturn his conviction regardless of probably exculpatory proof being not too long ago uncovered.
The choice by the Supreme Courtroom, which begins its new time period on Monday, is predicted by the top of June.
Glossip was convicted of commissioning the homicide of Barry Van Treese, proprietor of the Finest Funds Inn motel in Oklahoma Metropolis the place Glossip was a supervisor. All events agree Van Treese was overwhelmed to loss of life with a baseball bat by upkeep employee Justin Sneed. Sneed confessed to the homicide however prevented capital punishment by accepting a plea deal that concerned testifying that Glossip paid him $10,000 to do it.
The sufferer’s household, represented by former federal decide Paul Cassell, filed a quick with the Supreme Courtroom saying, “The reality right here is that no proof was suppressed and Glossip commissioned the homicide of Barry Van Treese.”
After taking workplace final yr, Drummond started reviewing every of Oklahoma’s 28 then-pending loss of life row instances. The veteran trial legal professional noticed hallmarks of a rock strong prosecution in practically all these convictions: direct witnesses, corroborating witnesses and what he known as “details galore” indicating a defendant’s guilt.
However what he noticed in Glossip’s case troubled him.
Securing a homicide conviction in opposition to Glossip hinged on the testimony of Sneed, who was a methamphetamine addict, and the reliability of his account. Glossip admitted to serving to Sneed cowl up the homicide after it occurred, however denied understanding that Sneed deliberate to kill Van Treese or encouraging him to take action.
“The state’s witness was the assassin, and he was endorsed for the loss of life penalty till he turned state’s proof and mentioned, ‘Oh, not me, however Mr. Glossip – he is the mastermind,'” Drummond mentioned. “That struck me as very odd.”
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Drummond commissioned an impartial investigation and disclosed data – together with a prosecutor’s hand-written notes from a gathering with Sneed – that had been withheld from Glossip’s legal professionals.
The brand new data solid doubt on Sneed’s credibility, Glossip’s legal professionals mentioned. They contend they had been stored in the dead of night about Sneed receiving psychiatric remedy for bipolar dysfunction instantly after his arrest, and that prosecutors didn’t right a false assertion Sneed made about his prescription for the remedy lithium.
These revelations led Drummond to achieve a momentous conclusion: If prosecutors had given protection legal professionals all of the exculpatory proof they possessed, as required by legislation, then Glossip may need been acquitted.
“I do not imagine Mr. Glossip was given a good trial,” Drummond mentioned.
Glossip’s case isn’t the primary time Drummond has pushed again in opposition to an order to kill.
In 1991, whereas flying an F-15 Eagle in a nighttime operation through the U.S.-led Persian Gulf Warfare in opposition to Iraq, Drummond disobeyed three direct orders to fireside a missile at an plane that had been recognized as hostile. Going through anti-aircraft artillery hearth and low gas, then-Captain Drummond insisted on personally confirming that the plane was an enemy earlier than taking pictures it down.
Drummond was later awarded the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for figuring out the jet as an allied Saudi plane and withholding hearth. His 1991 army quotation mentioned his actions had “prevented the tragic loss” of allied forces’ lives.
In Glossip’s case, Drummond confirmed “an uncommon quantity of braveness” by asking the Supreme Courtroom to halt Glossip’s execution and grant him a brand new trial, mentioned Robin Maher, government director of the Loss of life Penalty Data Middle nonprofit group.
“It is inconceivable to overstate simply how extraordinary it’s,” Maher mentioned.
Drummond’s help, Maher added, stands out as the motive why the Supreme Courtroom selected to halt Glossip’s execution and listen to his case quite than reject it, as sometimes occurs when loss of life row inmates attraction.
As a result of Oklahoma’s legal professional basic is supporting Glossip’s attraction, the Supreme Courtroom needed to take the uncommon step of tapping an outdoor lawyer – personal legal professional Christopher Michel – to argue that Glossip’s conviction must be upheld.
Michel in his Supreme Courtroom transient, amongst different issues, sought to rebut the declare by Glossip’s legal professionals that the newly disclosed data undermined Sneed’s credibility or the prosecution’s dealing with of the case.
Drummond’s maverick streak has put him at odds with Republican attorneys basic from eight states who urged the justices to clear the best way for Glossip’s execution. He beforehand bucked fellow Republicans in Oklahoma by efficiently suing on constitutional grounds to dam the primary taxpayer-funded spiritual constitution faculty in the USA.
Drummond mentioned he didn’t weigh any potential political dangers for backing Glossip, comparable to being painted by opponents as gentle on crime.
“If meaning I am by no means elected once more, then I can go to my grave being happy that I did the correct factor,” Drummond mentioned.
Drummond believes Glossip’s function in protecting up Van Treese’s homicide makes him not less than an “accent after the very fact,” justifying a protracted jail sentence. However Glossip’s homicide conviction was too flawed for Drummond to defend.
“Oklahomans should have absolute religion that the loss of life penalty is run pretty and with certainty,” Drummond mentioned.
Drummond mentioned he feels duty-bound to attend executions to honor victims and their households, and the reminiscence of these put to loss of life. Seven instances as legal professional basic he has sat 4 toes (1.2 meters) away as an inmate strapped to a gurney was administered a deadly injection.
Drummond mentioned he’ll implement no matter judgment the Supreme Courtroom makes regarding Glossip, even when it means supervising an execution he believes to be improper.
“I really feel strongly that my place is right,” Drummond mentioned. “But when a majority on the Supreme Courtroom says in any other case, I can be within the loss of life chamber with Mr. Glossip.”
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