The past two days, I have blogged (here and here) about Glossip v. Oklahoma, a death penalty case that the Supreme Court will hear next Wednesday. I explained in my two earlier posts how Glossip and Oklahoma (through Attorney General Gertner Drummond) have concocted a phantom Brady violation where none exists. Simply put, Glossip's prosecutors never withheld evidence. In this third and last post in the series, I discuss how courts should respond to confessions of "error" by prosecutors in possibly politically motivated circumstances. The Glossip case is a cautionary tale suggesting that courts should not blindly accept such confessions but rather should independently review the underlying record to determine the truth.
The Glossip case revolves around Glossip's claim that prosecutors' notes reveal evidence withheld from the defense team concerning a prosecution witness (Justin Sneed). The State of Oklahoma, through Attorney General Gertner Drummond, has confessed "error" and agrees with Glossip's claim.
My amicus brief for the family of Barry Van Treese, the murder victim, responds to these claims. In my first post, I explained that Glossip and General Drummond misinterpret the prosecutors' notes and fail to provide the Supreme Court with important context about the notes' meaning. In my second post, I discussed Glossip's and Drummond's failure to address these concerns in their reply briefs. Today, I review the issue of what weight the Supreme Court should give to General Drummond confession of "error" in resolving the case. As with my two earlier posts, today's post draws on and summarizes my more detailed amicus brief and its incorporated appendix.
