Supreme Court tosses conviction and death sentence of Oklahoma inmate, orders new trial

Supreme Court orders new trial for Oklahoma's Richard Glossip following his conviction in a 1997 alleged murder-for-hire plot.

The justices heard arguments in October in a case that 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.

"We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a majority opinion.

"The Court stretches the law at every turn to rule in his favor. At the threshold, it concocts federal jurisdiction by misreading the decision below. On the merits, it finds a due process violation based on patently immaterial testimony about a witness’s medical condition," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a dissenting opinion. "And, for the remedy, it orders a new trial in violation of black-letter law on this Court’s power to review state-court judgments."