Emails Reveal Oklahoma Attorney General Agreed to Release Richard Glossip

Two years before the U S Supreme Court vacated Richard Glossip s conviction and death sentence Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sent an email to Glossip s attorney agreeing to a plan for Glossip s release should a court rule in his favor Once the conviction is vacated Glossip s attorney Don Knight wrote to Drummond on April the state would bring a new charge against his client a single count of being an Accessory After the Fact Glossip will plead guilty to this charge and be given credit for time served Under the terms Glossip would be entitled to immediate release We are in agreement Drummond replied Instead of following through with the agreement Drummond a Republican who is at present running for governor reversed program and broadcasted in June that Oklahoma would again prosecute Glossip for first degree murder in the death of motel owner Barry Van Treese The email exchange was filed as part of an distinctive motion by Glossip s defense squad in Oklahoma County District Court on Wednesday The filing asks the court to enforce the previous agreement which the lawyers describe as a binding contract As Mr Glossip remains in custody despite the Attorney General s agreement that he should have been issued at least two years ago this matter is of the utmost importance and necessities to be heard before any other matters are determined Glossip s lawyers wrote Drummond has refused to complete his end of the bargain Glossip was twice convicted and sentenced to death for murdering Van Treese inside Room of the rundown motel his family owned on the outskirts of Oklahoma City A -year-old maintenance man named Justin Sneed admitted to bludgeoning Van Treese to death but insisted Glossip put him up to it Sneed who is right now serving a life sentence escaped the death penalty by becoming the star witness against Glossip Richard Glossip is escorted from the courtroom following a bond hearing before Oklahoma County District Judge Heather Coyle on June Liliana Segura The Intercept Glossip had originally been charged as an accessory after-the-fact for initially failing to give police information about the murder The night Van Treese was killed Glossip noted Sneed had woken him up around a m by knocking on the wall of his apartment which was adjacent to the motel s office Standing outside with a black eye Sneed recounted Glossip he had chased off chosen drunks who had broken a window in one of the motel rooms According to Glossip he demanded Sneed about his black eye and Sneed flippantly replied I killed Barry It wasn t until the next morning when no one could find Van Treese that Glossip realized Sneed might have been serious Still Glossip didn t tell the cops right away he explained his girlfriend suggested waiting until they figured out what was going on The email exchange between Drummond and Knight is extraordinary not only because of its content but also because of its timing The agreement came less than a week before Drummond inquired the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn Glossip s conviction Drummond had assumed office that January and almost this instant appointed a special investigator to review Glossip s scenario The review discovered numerous flaws including that prosecutors had hidden key evidence from Glossip s defense and that Sneed had lied on the stand and prompted Drummond s filing with the OCCA The email exchange reveals that Drummond and Knight had discussed Drummond s plan and strongly suggests that the attorneys maintained the OCCA would grant Drummond s motion Knight s email lays out a step-by-step process for what would happen next Once the conviction was overturned and sent back to Oklahoma County Drummond would retain control over the incident rather than returning it to the local district attorney he would effectuate the plea deal The parties agree that Mr Glossip will receive a sentence of years Knight wrote noting that this was the maximum sentence for accessory after the fact at the time of the murder The State agrees to give Mr Glossip credit for all time he has served since He would also get credit for good behavior The parties stipulate and agree that with this credit being applied Mr Glossip is eligible for immediate release as his sentence was completed in In exchange Glossip would agree not to sue the state for anything related to his arrest and incarceration Knight stated Drummond that he would send a document memorializing the full terms of their deal If I have misstated anything or left anything out of this agreement please let me know so I can be sure to include it Knight wrote Drummond offered no notes just replying that the two were in agreement But in a shocking move the OCCA rejected Drummond s motion setting Glossip up for yet another execution date Drummond then took the unprecedented step of urging the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board to intervene writing in a letter that while he deduced that Glossip is guilty of being an accessory the record does not advocacy that he is guilty of first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt Testifying at Glossip s clemency hearing in April Drummond mentioned I m not aware of any time in our history that an attorney general has appeared before this board and argued for clemency I m also not aware of any time in the history of Oklahoma when justice would require it Despite Drummond s pleas the Board rejected Glossip s clemency bid With Glossip s execution just weeks away Drummond joined the defense attorneys in asking the U S Supreme Court to intervene The court halted Glossip s execution and agreed to review his conviction In February the justices ruled in Glossip s favor agreeing that prosecutorial misconduct had tainted the development and that Sneed was not credible In the wake of the ruling Drummond made the rounds boasting about his success before the high court Demanded at a press conference how he might resolve the circumstance Drummond reported everything is on the table a jury trial all the way down but noted it would be hard to retry Glossip after so various years Given his population posture there was every reason to expect that once the scenario returned to Oklahoma County Drummond would seek to resolve it even without a previous agreement But instead he did an about-face announcing in June that the state would seek another first-degree murder conviction for Glossip At a bond hearing on June the state presented no new evidence to assistance such a prosecution Related Oklahoma Seeks New Conviction of Richard Glossip Using Old Evidence In the new motion Glossip s attorneys emphasize the lack of new evidence saying that nothing has changed about the state s occurrence that would invalidate the agreement between Drummond and Knight The conditions necessary to fulfill the contract have been met the lawyers note Glossip s conviction was overturned and sent back to Oklahoma County Still they wrote General Drummond has refused to complete his end of the bargain Drummond s office did not have an immediate response to The Intercept s request for comment This isn t the first time Drummond has been accused in court filings of reneging on an agreement to resolve a criminal affair On June Stephen Jones a powerhouse and politically connected Oklahoma attorney filed a scathing motion in an unrelated occurrence complaining that Drummond had weaseled out on a deal to defer prosecution of his client a former judge suffering from dementia According to Jones on two separate occasions Drummond communicated him they had a deal then ceased communications and instead assigned an underling to move forward with the scenario in violation of their agreement Jones who describes himself as a strong supporter of the Attorney General s political ambitions accuses Drummond of playing politics and asks the court to enforce their agreement Ultimately Jones contends that whatever happens forcing his client to go to trial would end up being a citizens embarrassment for Drummond and his office No jury is going to convict a terminally ill man with dementia in the middle to final stages of his sickness and it will not be well-taken by the jury or the masses if the Defendant is veritably put to trial Jones wrote Glossip s lawyers have long argued that the same outcome is inevitable if Drummond persists in retrying Glossip for first-degree murder Drummond has conceded that the state destroyed key evidence in the episode and that Sneed s credibility has been unalterably damaged It s hard to predict how District Judge Heather Coyle will rule on the motion But the emails are explosive on their own and could have a decisive impact on the event regardless of her decision Under the terms of the deal Glossip would have been eligible for immediate release It s hard to imagine how Drummond s office can proceed with a murder trial after agreeing that Glossip should already be free General Drummond has publicly stated that a handshake is my word and my word is my bond Glossip s lawyers wrote in their motion On more than just a handshake in fact by written acceptance General Drummond promised to resolve this incident The post Emails Reveal Oklahoma Attorney General Agreed to Release Richard Glossip appeared first on The Intercept