Richard Glossip Asks For New Hearing As Oklahoma Schedules 25 Executions

The attorney for Richard Glossip says he “won’t stop” trying to prove his client’s innocence.  

“This is an innocent man,” attorney Don Knight said outside the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals.  

Knight filed a request for a new evidentiary hearing for Glossip on Friday. On the same day, the court set Glossip’s execution date for September 22. Twenty-four other executions were scheduled through December 2024.  

Glossip is convicted of the 1997 Oklahoma City murder of Barry Van Treese. After multiple trials, Glossip was found guilty of ordering Justin Sneed to kill Van Treese. Sneed testified against Glossip and avoided death row.  

“We have found a lot of evidence that Rich (Glossip) is innocent, that Justin Sneed set him up, that Justin Sneed has been lying all these years, and that Richard Glossip had nothing to do with the murder of Barry Van Treese,” Knight said.  

Last month, the law firm Reed Smith released its “independent investigation” of Glossip’s conviction in the form of a nearly 350-page report. Click here to access the report.  

One “concern” listed in the report is the 1999 destruction of a box of “key physical evidence” between Glossip’s first and second trial. The report claims the local district attorney ordered the evidence be destroyed.  

“This investigation confirmed that a 28‐year veteran of the Oklahoma City Police Department was specifically requested by the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office to destroy a box of evidence containing 10 items,” the report reads.  

Former Assistant District Attorney Gary Ackley was interviewed by Reed Smith. In the report, Ackley said he did not know how the evidence was destroyed.  

“I have no idea how something like this could happen,” Ackley said, according to the Reed Smith report. “No idea why it would happen.  In my admittedly faulty recollection, that was well after we had reemphasized this stuff couldn’t get destroyed.”  

Oklahoma County DA David Prater said the office never directed the police department to destroy the evidence. Reed Smith did not name a specific employee of the district attorney’s office in the report.  

Knight said the report, which details failures by Glossip’s previous attorney and several other concerns, is “the biggest thing that we could ask for to show Richard's innocence.”  

Knight said he plans to file a motion to stay Glossip’s execution on Tuesday.