Death row inmate of 27 years to receive new trial

June 2025

Richard Glossip has been on death row in Oklahoma for 27 years and has been on the verge of execution nine times. His case went to the Supreme Court who found that a key witness had lied and that prosecutors had withheld information. The decision was vacated and Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, has ordered a new trial which is promised to be fair. He made clear however that he was not proclaiming his innocence.

The case illustrates a problem with the justice system if evidence which may cast a different light on a case is withheld by the police or prosecutors particularly evidence which is exculpatory. No one would pretend the UK system of justice is perfect but the system of discovery which demands that the defence team has access to relevant evidence before the trial, has been a key development in recent years. Too often in US trials by contrast, lack of this information or candour by the prosecutors has been a factor.

Richard Glossip (pictured, theintercept.com) may by now have been executed. At one planned execution it was discovered that the lethal drugs to be used did not match execution protocols which led to a suspension of executions in the state for seven years.

Glossip’s case is a clear example why capital punishment should not be used by a state. Simply put, mistakes cannot be rectified. Amnesty is against capital punishment in all circumstances. The US is the only state on the American continent to retain it. There is little evidence that it is effective. It brutalises the state. It is incredibly expensive. And as has been shown in the Glossip case, if false evidence was used to secure a conviction, then the mistake cannot be put right. In the USA around 130 people on death row have been found to be innocent since 1973. The country joins some reprehensible regimes such as China, Iran, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia which use the penalty against huge numbers of its citizens – in the case of China an unknown number since it is a state secret but it is believed to be thousands.

Sources: Death Penalty Information Center; NBC News; The Attorney General’s office; AP News; The Oklahoman.

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