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 The defense team for 52-year-old Richard Glossip, who was
convicted of arranging the 1997 murder of the owner of an Oklahoma
City motel he was managing, filed the request in a state appeals
court.
The attorneys said Michael Scott, who signed an affidavit saying he
heard convicted murderer Justin Sneed brag about setting Glossip up
for the crime, was arrested on Tuesday on a warrant for a $200
unpaid fine and failure to complete community service connected to a
recent drunk driving arrest.
Scott was arrested in Rogers County, but was interrogated by
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, who serves the
county where the murder took place around 100 miles to the
southwest, according to the filing.
 "Prater specifically told Mr. Scott that he ordered this action so
that Scott would be forced to talk with Prater and his
investigator," the filing said.
Prater's office could not be immediately reached for comment.
Glossip's lawyers have argued that no physical evidence tied their
client to the murder of Barry Van Treese. They added that he was
convicted largely on the testimony of Sneed, then 19, and the
motel's maintenance man, who confessed to carrying out the killing
after Glossip hired him to do it.
Sneed avoided the death penalty by testifying against Glossip and is
serving a life sentence.
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An appeals court threw out a previous conviction, saying evidence
against Glossip was "extremely weak." The case went back to a jury
in 2004, which found him guilty and upheld the death sentence
Glossip was set to be executed last Wednesday for the murder of
motel owner Barry Van Treese, until a last minute stay from the
Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals stayed the execution and reset
the date to Sept. 30.
Glossip's execution would be the first in Oklahoma since the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in June the use of midazolam, a sedative in the
lethal injection procedure, did not violate the U.S. Constitution's
ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
(Editing by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Michael Perry)
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