The long and winding road to Richard Glossip’s latest murder trial got a bit dustier today when Oklahoma County District Judge Heather Coyle recused from the case.
Though she offered no public explanation, Coyle apparently agreed to recuse herself during a discussion with prosecutors and Glossip’s attorneys in her office before the start of a scheduled status conference.
Glossip is awaiting what would be his third murder trial. He was convicted in 1998 of the first-degree murder of Barry Van Treese, who owned a motel that Glossip managed. While Justin Sneed, a man Glossip let stay at the motel in exchange for doing maintenance work, admitted to beating Van Treese to death, he said Glossip asked him to commit the crime. With Sneed serving life in prison, Glossip has been on death row twice and has faced several scheduled execution dates over the last 27 years.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the 1998 conviction for ineffective assistance of counsel, but Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death again at a retrial in 2004. Earlier this year, with Attorney General Gentner Drummond stating that prosecutors had failed to provide relevant information about Sneed’s mental health background to Glossip’s defense team and had failed to correct false testimony, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Glossip is entitled to a new trial.
Now, Drummond has taken over the third prosecution of Glossip for the murder of Van Treese, although he chose not to seek the death penalty.
Asked about Coyle’s recusal Thursday, a spokesman for Drummond’s office said the AG had no comment on her decision or how it came about.
“We remain eager to take this case to trial,” said Phil Bacharach, Drummond’s communications director.
As Don Knight, Glossip’s lead defense counsel, exited Coyle’s courtroom Thursday, he told someone seated in the audience that the defense team had asked the judge to recuse. But asked moments later during media interviews if he had asked Coyle to recuse herself, Knight said he would not answer the question.
Hearing on motion to enforce ‘agreement’ still up in air
The question Knight does want answered, however, is why Drummond is prosecuting his client today when he said in a 2023 email exchange that he would agree to release Glossip from prison if his conviction were overturned by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.
Thursday’s status conference with Coyle had been called to schedule a hearing on Knight’s motion to enforce that purported “release settlement agreement,” which Drummond’s office has emphasized was never finalized or signed. But with Coyle recusing, that motion hearing remains unscheduled, with the parties next set to appear for another status conference in front of Oklahoma County District Judge Kathryn Savage on Thursday, Sept. 4.
Speaking to media following Thursday’s recusal by Coyle, Knight used the opportunity to discuss the 2023 email exchange with Drummond. He said Drummond had approached him two years ago looking for a way to settle Glossip’s case.
“I think that the people fail to understand that that’s not something that I brought up to Attorney General Drummond,” Knight said. “Attorney General Drummond brought that up to me. He did that because he had a problem. The problem was his handpicked investigator said there was a problem with this case, that Richard Glossip did not receive a fair trial. And good on Gentner Drummond. He said I’m going to do the right thing. But in doing so, he knew he had a problem. If he went ahead and did the right thing, and the Oklahoma Court of Appeals sent this to the district court, and the district court turned around and cut Rich Glossip loose, Rich Glossip could sue the state. So, the attorney general did what any good lawyer does, and he said I need to protect my state from that. He reached out to me. I didn’t reach out to him. We didn’t discuss a plea bargain. We discussed how we were going to settle this matter to make sure Rich Glossip didn’t sue the state when the case was returned to Oklahoma County District Court, and that’s what we discussed. It was an agreement that benefited both sides, and to the detriment of both sides. Obviously, in any good agreement, you give things up. But it was never a plea bargain. It was a release settlement agreement.”
Knight said Glossip, who is being held in the Oklahoma County Jail without bond as he awaits trial, remains frustrated that the “agreement” has not been enforced.
“He’s greatly disappointed,” Knight said. “He’s 62 years old. He’s not well. There’s no guarantee he will survive another year in the county jail because it’s a dangerous county jail anyway.”
When Knight filed his motion to enforce the 2023 email conversation, Drummond filed a same-day response emphasizing that no agreement was ever finalized, as evidenced by Knight’s own correspondence.
“The email reflects Attorney General Drummond agreed the ‘basic terms’ of what had been discussed were correctly identified, but that as Mr. Knight made clear the defendant’s attorneys were still ‘preparing’ their ‘more detailed’ proposed agreement which would be subject to further revision and ultimately approval by the attorney general,” the state’s response said. “Soon the OCCA’s denial of post-conviction relief on April 20, 2023, made the defendant’s proposed agreement for resolution of criminal charges at the district court level a moot point. The defendant’s proposed agreement was never finalized nor was it ever executed by the parties.”
Rep. Justin Humphrey (R-Lane) has advocated on behalf of Glossip in recent years. He attended Thursday’s court conference and said Coyle’s recusal was surprising. He said it may be related to the fact she worked in the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office for about 20 years before becoming a judge.
“I think that was what the issue was, I was pretty certain that is what it was,” Humphrey said. ”I haven’t been told that directly from Don Knight. But it was my understanding that it was.”
