WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appeared likely Wednesday to give Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip at least another day in court in his long quest to throw out his murder conviction and death sentence.
The justices heard arguments in a case that has produced a rare alliance in which lawyers for Glossip and the state argued that the high court should overturn Glossip’s conviction and death sentence because he did not get a fair trial.
The victim’s relatives have told the high court that they want to see Glossip executed.
Oklahoma’s top criminal appeals court has repeatedly upheld the conviction and sentence, even after the state sided with Glossip.
The justices seemed unlikely to affirm the Oklahoma court, after arguments that lasted one and three quarters hours.
But precisely what the court would do was less clear. The justices could throw out the conviction, which would take Glossip off of death row.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who attended Wednesday’s session, has conceded the trial was unfair. Drummond, a Republican, has said Glossip could face a new trial in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.