Death Penalty News

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appeared likely Wednesday to give Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip at least another day in court in his long quest to throw out his murder conviction and death sentence. The justices heard arguments in a case that has produced a rare alliance in which lawyers for Glossip and the state argued that the high court should overturn Glossip’s conviction and death sentence because he did not get a fair trial. The victim’s relatives have told the high court that they want to see Glossip executed.

At the Supreme Court Tuesday, a true crime drama that features a man who has been on death row for more than 25 years, always insisting he is innocent, and a conservative state attorney general in Oklahoma who agrees the prisoner got an unfair trial. Richard Glossip has had nine execution dates set over the years; he's eaten his last meal three times. He was tried twice and has had multiple appeals, including one that was heard by the Supreme Court involving the proposed method of execution. When the Supreme Court heard that case in 2015, Justice Samuel Alito made it clear that he viewed the appeal as nothing more than a stalling tactic, asking, "Is it appropriate for the judiciary to countenance what amounts to a guerrilla war against the death penalty?"

Convincing a Republican attorney general to advocate against a death sentence is a near impossible feat, but Supreme Court roadblocks could force Oklahoma to execute a man in a conviction it doesn’t accept. WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court handed Richard Glossip one loss in 2015 — and if not for a corrections department blunder, he’d be dead. Almost a decade later, Glossip returns to the high court a second time, bringing the justices mountains of support for another trial and hoping a procedural hurdle doesn’t end his case for innocence before it can begin.

After hearing submissions, the bench observed, “Unless all the links could have held themselves together so as to complete the chain of circumstantial evidence, the accused could not have been held guilty of having committed the crime." The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has set aside the death sentence and acquitted from all charges and gave ‘benefit of doubt’ to a man, who was convicted and sentenced for the rape and murder of a five-year-old. The court cited discrepancies in the probe and said that the prosecution had failed to establish the involvement of the convict in the crime. The court also expressed displeasure over the conduct of the presiding officer for failing to bring forth vital pieces of evidence and said that such cases involving minors should be dealt with “utmost sensitivity”. A Division Bench of Justices Ravindra V Ghuge and Bhalchandra U Debadwar passed the judgment on February 11 on a plea by the state government seeking confirmation of the death ...

From his small cell on California's death row, Scott Pinholster swore he could prove his innocence. The proof, he said, was in the dried blood on a work boot and a pink towel recovered from his home years ago. The condemned inmate insisted that modern DNA testing - nonexistent when he was convicted of a double murder in 1984 - would show the blood belonged to him, not the victims, as the prosecution argued at his trial. But a recent search for the items has led to a disturbing discovery that could throw the case into jeopardy: The Los Angeles County courts mistakenly destroyed the evidence. A judge must now determine what, if anything, should be done to remedy the high-stakes error. Pinholster's attorney has asked for a hearing on how the destruction happened and says he will eventually ask for a new trial. Prosecutors, however, argue that a killer's life shouldn't be spared simply because of an innocent mistake by court staff. How evidence once t...

Richard Glossip, Sister Helen Prejean Oklahoma City Police released its report detailing the evidence from the murder of Barry Van Treese at the request of Fox 25. The report was never provided to attorneys who represented Richard Glossip in his second trial or his appeals according to his new defense team who received the report following a Fox 25 Investigation that aired the eve of his scheduled execution. The 1999 police report lists the contents of the box of property marked for destruction because the appeals were exhausted. In reality, the appeals process had just begun for Glossip. Listed as contents were: "1 roll of duct tape; 1 bag with duct tape; 1 envelope with note; 1 bag with glasses; 1 bag with wallet, knifes [sic], keys; 1 bag with white shower curtain; 1 white box with papers; 1 deposit book; 2 receipt books." While the state conceded in the second trial it had no physical evidence linking Richard Glossip to the motel room murder scene his new def...