Richard Glossip, a former Oklahoma death row inmate who has spent close to three decades in prison and eaten three last meals, was released from jail on Thursday, May 14.
Glossip, 63, is awaiting a third trial in his high-profile 1997 murder-for-hire case. He was released on a $500,000 bond granted by an Oklahoma County judge earlier that morning.
He walked out of the Oklahoma County jail with his attorneys and wife, Lea Glossip. Conditions of his bail require Glossip to remain in Oklahoma and wear an electronic monitoring device. He cannot contact any witnesses in the case or consume drugs or alcohol.
"I'm just thankful for my wife and my attorneys," he told reporters waiting outside the jail. "It's overwhelming, but it's amazing at the same time."
Glossip has been twice convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. Prosecutors claim Glossip paid another employee, Justin Sneed, to kill Van Treese and helped cover it up.
Both convictions have been overturned, most recently by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court threw out his conviction because of prosecutorial misconduct, writing that prosecutors' decision to allow a key witness to give testimony they knew to be false violated Glossip's constitutional right to a fair trial.
Throughout it all, Glossip has maintained his innocence. His case has even garnered support from Kim Kardashian, actress Susan Sarandon and other prominent public figures.
After the Supreme Court remanded Glossip's case back to a lower court, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond – also a GOP candidate for governor – announced that he would retry Glossip for first-degree murder, without the death penalty. Drummond's decision to pursue another conviction has frustrated Glossip's legal team, who argue the state's top prosecutor had previously agreed to a plea deal.
"The Court fully expects that the State will rigorously prosecute its case going forward and the defense will provide robust and effective representation for Glossip," District Court Judge Natalie Mai wrote in his order for bail. "The Court hopes that a new trial, free of error, will provide all interested parties, and the citizens of Oklahoma, the closure they deserve."
In February, Glossip's attorneys used Drummond's vocal criticism for a trial he said was plagued with a "litany of errors," among other evidence, to petition for Glossip's release from jail.
Corbin Brewster, one of Glossip's lawyers, told Mai the evidence against Glossip does not meet the high burden of proof needed to keep him in jail while he awaits a new trial. Evidence against Glossip has likely weakened, as witnesses have died and decades have passed, Brewster said.
Brewster also said Glossip requires medical services not available in the Oklahoma County jail, as his health has deteriorated over the 29 years since his arrest.
Meanwhile, prosecutors argued, Glossip will again be found guilty because of the "plethora" of evidence against him, untainted by the misconduct found by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Some of the best evidence against Richard Glossip is from Richard Glossip's mouth," said Jimmy Harmon, a lawyer for the attorney general's office.
Harmon said Glossip has "only gotten more manipulative" while in prison, using two letters from previous romantic partners alleging manipulation to strengthen his case. He said Glossip has very few ties to Oklahoma and is not a good candidate for release.
In the 13-page order setting his bail, Mai cited a 1998 Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decision and a section of the Oklahoma Constitution mandating bail in most cases.
"It is the bedrock principle of Oklahoma law that bail is not used as a form of punishment. Rather, bail is simply the means to ensure that a defendant will appear to face the charges pending against him," she wrote. "Based on the ample record at this point in time, the Court finds that it cannot deny bail to Glossip."
A different judge, Heather Coyle, previously ruled Glossip was not eligible for bond in Jul. 2025, before she recused herself because of her friendship with Connie Smotherman, the prosecutor mentioned in the Supreme Court's misconduct ruling. Coyle was one of six judges removed from Glossip's case before it landed in Mai's courtroom.
During his nearly 30 years on death row, Oklahoma courts set nine different execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he ate three separate last meals. In 2015, he was brought to a cell next to the execution chamber, waiting to be strapped to a gurney.
That time, his execution stalled because prison officials at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary realized one of the lethal drugs they planned to use for the execution didn't match the three-drug protocol used by the state. The mix-up led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions.
Glossip's next court appearance is scheduled for June 23.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
