On Jan. 7, 1997, Barry Van Treese, 54, was beaten to death in room 102 of the Best Budget Inn, a motel he owned in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
His murderer, Justin Sneed, was a 19-year-old bipolar methamphetamine addict and maintenance man at the motel. Mr. Sneed avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty in 1998 and implicating his supervisor, Richard Glossip, in the crime. According to Mr. Sneed, Mr. Glossip hired him to kill Mr. Van Treese to cover up embezzlement and mismanagement by Mr. Glossip so he could take over the business.
Oklahoma is planning to execute Mr. Glossip even though he didn’t kill anyone. His case is currently set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 31 will be the 25th anniversary of Glossip’s arrival on death row. He’s professed his innocence for 26 years, including the year spent investigating and prosecuting the crime. The debate over whether he should be released, retried, or executed appears to be the difference between black letter law and true justice.
His wife, Lea Glossip, and Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond agree that Mr. Glossip should not be on death row. But they disagree on where he should be. Ms. Glossip wants him declared innocent and freed. She told The Epoch Times his case exemplifies the justice system’s failure.
“Even with multiple trials and appeals, you could still be innocent; you could still be in this situation 26 years later with all these levels of review. It actually can happen, and I think Richard’s story is a perfect example of that,” Ms. Glossip told The Epoch Times.
Don Knight is a Littleton, Colorado-based lawyer who has taken up Mr. Glossip’s case.
“My contention is that Richard Glossip is innocent and should never have been jailed for first-degree murder,” Mr. Knight said.
Mr. Drummond’s office would not comment on the case because it is before the U.S. Supreme Court. But during an April 26, 2023 clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, Mr. Drummond said he believes Mr. Glossip is guilty of a crime but did not receive a fair trial.
Van Treese Family Wants Justice
Members of the Van Treese family did not respond to messages seeking comment. They did testify at the clemency hearing. They said they want the legal ordeal to end.“I’ve spent over half my life waiting for justice to be served to those responsible (for the murder),” said Mr. Van Treese’s son, Derek Van Treese.
During a videotaped interrogation from 1997 that has been posted on YouTube by a group called SaveRichardGlossip, Mr. Sneed told police that Mr. Glossip promised him $10,000 if he would kill Van Treese.
Mr. Sneed said that Mr. Glossip originally hatched the murder plan with Mr. Sneed’s brother. When the brother returned to Texas to turn himself in on an outstanding warrant, Mr. Glossip turned to Mr. Sneed. The prosecution portrayed Mr. Sneed to both juries as a drug addict easily manipulated by Mr. Glossip.
Mr. Sneed told police that Mr. Glossip helped conceal the crime by taping a shower curtain over a broken window, then replacing the window with plexiglass. He also claimed that Mr. Glossip divided money stolen from Mr. Van Treese between them after the murder.
Prosecutors said Mr. Glossip also gave police contradictory answers about where Mr. Van Treese was on the day of the murder. They said he also kept people from searching room 102.
Glossip admitted making conflicting statements. But he said he did so because he was afraid of being implicated.
“I guess I took advice from people I shouldn’t have,” Mr. Glossip told The Epoch Times.
According to Mr. Glossip, Mr. Sneed woke him early on Jan. 7, 1997, to tell him that two drunks had fought and broken the window in room 102. He said he told Mr. Sneed to clean it up and to cover the broken window with plexiglass later.
Mr. Glossip said that later that day, he and his then-girlfriend left the motel to run errands and pick up supplies. He said that because they spent most of their time working at the motel, shopping trips were a break in their routine.
“It was our little getaway,” Mr. Glossip said.
He said that while they were out, he got a call from the desk clerk at the motel telling him that Mr. Van Treese was missing. The couple finished shopping and returned to the motel. Mr. Glossip said when he returned that it was clear something was wrong.
“It was total chaos,” he said.
He said he helped search for Mr. Van Treese and was questioned by police. Mr. Glossip said that in the days after the murder, friends told him he should hire an attorney since police still wanted to question him. So, he sold some of his possessions and made an appointment to meet with a lawyer on January 9. Police arrested him as he left that appointment.
According to court records, police found more than $1,700 on Mr. Glossip when he was arrested. They claimed it was money taken after the murder.
Process Plagued With Problems
“(Police) did a terrible, terrible, terrible job investigating,” Mr. Knight said.According to Mr. Knight, the entire process has been plagued with problems. He said that after Mr. Glossip’s first conviction was reversed due to ineffective legal counsel, but before the second trial began in 1999, a box containing ten items of evidence was destroyed. He said these items would have contained fingerprints, DNA, or other evidence to determine if Mr. Glossip was involved in the murder.
He claims that financial records that would have shown financial crimes were also destroyed.
“The story comes down to how terrible this investigation was. They got Sneed to tell them what they wanted to hear, and they stopped investigating altogether,” Mr. Knight said.
Mr. Glossip’s supporters include more than just his wife and lawyer. They include staunch death penalty opponents and pro-capital punishment conservatives who believe Glossip was denied a fair trial.
Anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean—whose book about convicted murderers Elmo Patrick Sonnier and Robert Lee Willie, “Dead Man Walking,” inspired a 1995 film starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon—spoke out against Mr. Glossip’s execution during a May 4, 2023, demonstration at the Oklahoma State Capitol.
Prejean told the demonstrators that their fight must take their message to their communities and the voting box.
“Our consciences and our hearts demand that we speak up,” Prejean said.
During a May 9, 2023, demonstration at the Oklahoma State Capitol, television personality and clinical psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw called on state leaders to address the situation.
“The highest law enforcement officer in the state of Oklahoma courageously stood up and said, ‘We blew this.’ You’ve admitted it; now make it right,” he told a crowd of about 300.
“No execution should be carried out.”
Republican State Rep. Kevin McDugle told The Epoch Times he was initially skeptical of Glossip’s supporters, including Justin Jackson, the Clayton, Oklahoma businessman who first told him of the case. However, as he studied the case, his skepticism waned.
Call to Follow the Facts
“If he’s guilty, I want to know it. I want [investigators] to follow the facts and give me the truth,” McDugle said.Reed Smith investigators claim Oklahoma City police and prosecutors mishandled evidence, failed to follow proper procedures, and failed to interview all relevant witnesses.
Mr. Knight said the only thing linking Glossip to the actual murder was Mr. Sneed’s testimony, which he claims was elicited through questionable interrogation techniques. The report also claims prosecutors knew that Mr. Sneed, the state’s key witness, was a methamphetamine user being treated with lithium for bipolar disorder but withheld that information.
No Physical Evidence
Mr. McDugle agrees. He claims the report contains a signed affidavit from a police officer who says he was told to destroy physical evidence and recantation letters from Sneed.“If even 10 percent of this is true, we’ve potentially got an innocent man on death row,” McDugle said.
Mr. Drummond ordered an investigation of his own. He appointed lawyer Rex Duncan as Independent Counsel to look into the case. Mr. Duncan was the Osage County District Attorney for eight years and served as an Oklahoma State Representative from 2004 to 2010.
Mr. Duncan also testified at the April Pardon and Parole Board hearing. He told the board that the death penalty must be reserved for the “worst of the worst.”
“If anybody deserves to be on death row, it’s Justin Sneed,” Mr. Duncan told the board.
However, he said the state must be cautious when doling out the ultimate punishment.
“There are monsters among us . . . If the state of Oklahoma remains in the business of killing monsters, we must be righteous at every aspect of that process. We must carry out righteous killings. Justification must be so far above reproach that only the anti-death penalty advocates could criticize the result,” Mr. Duncan said.
He told the board that Mr. Glossip’s case did not meet that standard.
According to Mr. Duncan’s report, the state had sufficient cause to charge Mr. Glossip with a crime.
In his report, he pointed out Mr. Glossip’s contradictory statements on where Mr. Van Treese might be the day after the murder. Mr. Duncan said that whatever his motivation, Mr. Glossip wanted to steer investigators away from room 102, where Mr. Van Treese’s body was located.
However, he said there is no evidence that Mr. Glossip participated in the murder.
“The facts of this case have always supported a conviction for accessory after the fact, and I believe they still do,” Mr. Duncan said.
According to the Duncan report, Mr. Glossip was denied a fair trial because of inadequate legal counsel and possible prosecutorial impropriety.
“The cumulative effect of errors, omissions, lost evidence, and possible misconduct cannot be underestimated,” Mr. Duncan’s report reads.
Family Feels Forgotten
Mr. Van Treese’s family also testified before the Pardon and Parole Board. They said they feel they have been disregarded in the process.Donna Van Treese told the Pardon and Parole Board that the hardworking husband and father of seven, who entertained his children with corny jokes and silly songs, has been pushed aside. As the victim, he has become an abstraction whose presence is missed only by those closest to him.
She said the constant legal proceedings and media coverage has kept their nerves raw.
“We feel like we have let a wound heal, and the scabs [have] been torn off again multiple times over the years. We have greatly missed his presence in all of our lives,” Ms. Van Treese said.
According to Derek Van Treese, the state of Oklahoma made a commitment to his family that justice would be served. He said he was a young Marine just starting basic training when Mr. Glossip’s trial began. When the verdict was rendered and the sentence passed down, he thought the matter was settled.
Since then, Derek Van Treese said, Oklahoma has had four governors, five attorneys general, and seven directors of the Department of Corrections. Laws have been changed, Department of Corrections policies have been rewritten, and his father’s murder has “moved from the court of law to the court of public opinion,” he said.
“Enough is enough,” Derek Van Treese told the Pardon and Parole Board.
The Court of Criminal Appeals for the state of Oklahoma ruled on April 20, 2023, that after two trials, five appeals, and two reprieves, the former motel manager has exhausted all his legal options. In its April 20, 2023, decision, the court ruled that Mr. Glossip could have or should have brought up these issues already known during his previous trials.
According to the decision, the court is bound by state law to consider only new evidence or evidence the defendant could not have known existed at the time of his trial. The court ruled that Mr. Glossip’s lawyers could have asked for the evidence being presented now and could have raised the same objections during previous legal proceedings.
Correct Inevitable Mistakes
“Glossip is neither entitled to post-conviction relief nor a stay of execution,” the Appeals Court decision reads.The Pardon and Parole Board subsequently denied Mr. Glossip’s petition for clemency on a tie vote. Mr. Knight sued the board afterward, saying the hearing was unfair because the law requires all five members to be present and voting. The lawsuit resulted in two members resigning.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Mr. Glossip’s case when it reconvenes on Oct. 2, 2023, Mr. Knight said.
During the April 26 Pardon and Parole Board hearing, an attorney for Mr. Glossip acknowledged the Van Treese family’s desire for justice. Amy Knight—no relation to Don Knight—quoted former Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in pointing out that the justice system is not perfect and that injustice sometimes occurs despite the court’s best efforts.
“The process we are engaged in here today can correct the system’s inevitable mistakes, and it is our ability to do that which makes this system with its known fallibilities tolerable,” she said.
“The (Van Treese family’s) understandable pain and anger cannot be a reason for a government to proceed with ending the life of one of its citizens if the facts and the law do not support it.”
