What's next? Legal analyst on Glossip ruling

Attorney Irvin Box has been practicing law in Oklahoma for decades.

News On 6 talked with him about Tuesday’s ruling overturning Richard Glossip’s murder conviction and what’s next.

Q: Can you explain that this isn’t about the evidence about guilty or innocence it was about a witness not telling the truth?

Box: It was concerns about the credibility of the witness in this case. It’s an unusual case in Oklahoma. We’ve got the attorney general champing for this defendant. I mean seldom do you have that occur, but Genter Drummond I think one of the best attorney generals that we’ve had ad he’s looked it over and thinks the Supreme Court should reverse this case. He thinks it should be sent back because of some irregularities in this trial itself.

Q: What are your opinions about the trial?

Box: Personally about 10 years ago someone brought the transcript of the entire trial to me and I read the transcript and I had concerns at that time about some of the testimony and the credibility of the witness, even though I thought the person that really testified against him that caused him to be convicted was a codependent who claimed he didn’t commit the crime that Glossip did. The testimony was very sketchy and I thought at the time it consumed me just reading the transcript.

Q: What do you think the odds are they are going to retry the case?

Box: I think zero odds they’re going to retry this case. Number one the main witness that testified against him is deceased. They could use the transcript from the prior trial for his testimony since he’s deceased. I think they’ll work out some sort of compromise. My opinion is in the next days weeks or months. They’ll bring him back before the court, reduce the charge maybe to a lesser charge murder two, manslaughter. Sentence him and give him credit for the time he’s been in the penitentiary and then I think he’ll be released.

Q: Can you speak more on if they reduce the charge?

Box: I think they will reduce the charge where there will not be a death penalty on the table. I think in my opinion they’ll reduce it to a number of years which will coincide with the time he’s served. I think within days, weeks months that he can be released from state’s custody.