Supreme Court Invites Former Clerk to Argue for Death Penalty

The US Supreme Court invited a lawyer who clerked for the chief justice to argue in support of executing an Oklahoma man on death row who’s fighting his conviction.

Christopher Michel, a partner at Quinn Emanuel and former attorney in the Solicitor General’s Office, was asked in an order Friday to step into the rare death penalty appeal the court agreed to hear.

The case is unique because Oklahoma is supporting death row inmate Richard Glossip, who says prosecutors suppressed evidence in order to convict him of a murder-for-hire plot in 1997.

“While the State previously opposed relief for ...