Supreme Court Decision Syllabus (scotus)

Send us a textIn Glossip v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court held that a criminal defendant is entitled to a new trial when the prosecution knowingly fails to correct false testimony and that error could have contributed to the verdict. Richard Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death based primarily on the testimony of Justin Sneed, who claimed Glossip orchestrated the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese. Years later, newly discovered evidence revealed that the prosecution withheld key documents, allowed Sneed to give false testimony about his mental health history, and engaged in other misconduct. Oklahoma’s attorney general ultimately conceded that Glossip’s conviction was tainted and supported granting him a new trial, but the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the argument and upheld the conviction. The Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution’s failure to correct Sneed’s false testimony violated Napue v. Illinois, which prohibits the government from allowing false evidence to go unchallenged. Given