By G.W. Schulz<\/p>
The 26-year saga of a man in Oklahoma who was sentenced to die for arranging the murder of his boss gripped local and national headlines as the case ascended all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
As Richard Glossip\u2019s bid for relief reached the nation\u2019s highest court, it also clashed with our efforts in an unrelated case to have Oklahoma inmate Glynn Ray Simmons exonerated of a 1974 killing that occurred during a liquor-store robbery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
Throughout the spring and summer of 2023, Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo in our case weighed a <\/span>new pleading from Norwood.Law on behalf of our client<\/span><\/a>, Simmons. We were asking Judge Palumbo to declare Simmons, who has spent 48 years in prison, \u201cactually innocent\u201d of murdering a liquor-store clerk. \u201cActual innocence\u201d means that prosecutors did not prove a defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt even where a jury voted to convict.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
Judge Palumbo in July of 2023 stopped short of exonerating Simmons and instead called for a new trial. Informing her decision was an acknowledgment earlier this year by prosecutors at the Oklahoma County District Attorney\u2019s Office that Simmons\u2019s 1975 trial was conducted unfairly. They now admit that critical police records in the case were wrongly withheld from Simmons for 20 years. Those records contained <\/span>damning information about suspect lineups from the 1975 police investigation<\/span><\/a> and raised doubts about who the star witness in the case identified as the perpetrators.<\/span><\/p>
We had hoped Judge Palumbo would absolve Simmons of guilt in the case entirely and obviate the need for a new trial by declaring him \u201cactually innocent\u201d of the crime through \u201cclear and convincing evidence.\u201d With a new trial, Simmons at least has a new opportunity to persuade a jury that he\u2019s innocent of murder. If Simmons prevails, he becomes eligible to enter the <\/span>National Registry of Exonerations<\/span><\/a> as the longest-serving wrongfully convicted man in recorded U.S. history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
As she considered the fate of our client, <\/span>Judge Palumbo issued an order<\/span><\/a> on May 3, 2023, pointing out that the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals had recently denied an application for post-conviction relief in the Glossip case that was similar to our own. That denial was why Glossip\u2019s attorneys had proceeded with his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
The cases of Glynn Simmons and Richard Glossip roughly line up with one another in some key areas:<\/span><\/p>
So how are the two cases different? While Glossip remains on death row, Simmon\u2019s death sentence was amended to life in prison during the 1970s due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from that time. Also, <\/span>different areas of federal and state law may apply<\/span><\/a> in each case for determining whether relief should be granted by the courts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
In the case of Glossip, no one contends that he committed the murder itself. But two juries now have convicted him of paying someone else to kill his boss, the owner of a motel where Glossip worked in Oklahoma City. Circumstantial evidence <\/span>casts suspicion on Glossip about what he knew<\/span><\/a> and what he told investigators and witnesses at the motel in the wake of the killing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
In tough-on-crime Oklahoma made up largely of red-state Republicans who support law and order, Richard Glossip has attracted an unlikely team of supporters from across the political spectrum.<\/span><\/p>
An ad-hoc committee of elected legislators at the Oklahoma statehouse started forming in recent years to begin publicly questioning the conviction and planned execution of Richard Glossip. Most of the committee\u2019s members were Republicans, many of whom supported the death penalty. But questions surrounding the Glossip prosecution had raised doubts in their minds about whether he received a fair trial, whether he should be executed, and whether he was even guilty. The committee\u2019s membership eventually grew to over 60 lawmakers.<\/span><\/p>
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They first sent a letter in 2021 to the governor and the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board <\/span>asking them to launch an investigation into the Glossip case<\/span><\/a>. \u201cKilling Richard Glossip without certainty of his guilt will erode public trust, not only in capital punishment, but in the integrity and fairness of the entire Oklahoma criminal justice system.\u201d The letter ultimately failed to spark an inquiry, but the committee pushed ahead.<\/span><\/p>
A leader of the group emerged in the form of Republican Rep. Kevin McDugle of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who generally supports the death penalty for punishing criminals. But McDugle came to steadfastly believe in Glossip\u2019s innocence and has communicated his position to the media at just about every opportunity. He was influenced in part by a 2017 docuseries called \u201cKilling Richard Glossip\u201d that <\/span>raised doubts about the case<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>
McDugle <\/span>told Tulsa Public Radio in April of 2023<\/span><\/a> that the docuseries is no doubt flavored with Hollywood hype. \u201cBut even if 10 percent of what they’re saying is true, we really could have a guy in Oklahoma that’s innocent on death row. \u2026 And that’s when I started digging in a little bit more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>