Oklahoma | Guest: How do we reconcile the state knows Glossip did not kill Van Treese but wants him dead?

The death chamber’s holding cell at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary is six footsteps from the execution table the state has been trying to strap Richard Glossip to for 26 years. They failed again back in May of this year. He’s 9-0 against the state.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to grant Glossip a new trial. The court’s decision is expected this October.

State Reps. Kevin McDugle and Justin Humphrey support the death penalty. Both, along with 60 other legislators, made it clear none of them are OK with Glossip’s execution.

I met Glossip 20 years ago in the Oklahoma County jail.

I was jailed for white collar crimes I had committed the year before. A security concern prompted the jail to place me in a special housing unit with fewer than 20 inmates. Glossip was one of them.

I liked him from the start. For whatever reason, I was the only inmate allowed direct physical contact with Glossip. Many times, I shook his hand. We ate together. I even cut his hair. We were friends.

Today, I serve as a criminal justice reform consultant advocating for restorative justice, transforming prison cultures, and reentry coaching with an emphasis on reducing the country’s recidivism rates.

As a former inmate turned consultant, I have observed all types of offenders and volatility. You can never let your guard down. The tension inside is palpable. Glossip gave me no such vibes. It’s as if he doesn’t belong. He knows it. I know it. It seems most of the world knows it.

It is a matter of public record that Justin Sneed murdered his boss, Barry Van Treese, in 1997. The victim’s family knows who the real killer is. Sneed isn’t on death row; Richard Glossip is. Glossip’s conviction hinges on Sneed’s testimony.

I watched the full interrogation video of Sneed back in 1997. Sneed cut a deal to save his own life by implicating Glossip as the mastermind of the robbery and murder. Sneed’s own family believes he lied about Glossip having any role in the crime.

What happened to Barry Van Treese mustn’t be forgotten. The pain the victim suffered and the void his family has endured is immeasurable. Everyone deserves justice — that includes Richard Glossip.

There is a logical argument that Glossip should’ve never been arrested for a total lack of evidence and no previous criminal history suggesting he was as unsavory as Sneed. The state withheld evidence in two trials that could’ve exonerated Glossip.

I see a possibility there are two victims: Barry Van Treese and Richard Glossip. Mr. Van Treese suffered a brutal death, but Glossip is lingering on death row in the confessed killer’s stead struggling to save his own life.

From 1990 to 2015 Oklahoma executed 112 convicted murderers. Glossip was scheduled to die in 2015 as the state’s 113th. Since 2015, he has been given nine separate execution dates, yet he remains alive. Nine others have since been executed.

It seems that a supernatural force is keeping that lethal cocktail out of Glossip’s bloodstream. It’s time for all of us to question if that is coming from above because it isn’t just good lawyering.

Involved in a lesser role [or not], how do we reconcile knowing Sneed’s spending his life in one of the state’s cushiest prisons when the state knows Glossip did not kill Van Treese but wants him dead? Who makes that kind of deal? How do you sell that to the victim’s family?

Source: oklahoman.com, Tony Green, August 23, 2023

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