Latest news with #RichardGlossip
CNN
6 days ago
- CNN
His murder conviction was thrown out, but Richard Glossip will stay in prison while he waits for a new trial, judge rules
A judge on Wednesday denied bond for former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, keeping him in custody while he awaits a retrial after the US Supreme Court tossed his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of his former boss, according to court records. District Judge Heather Coyle said in the order that the 'State has sufficiently shown by clear and convincing evidence that the presumption of the defendant's guilt of a capital offense is great.' The order comes after a hearing on Glossip's motion to set bond on June 17. Glossip's attorney declined to comment on the judge's decision Wednesday. The ruling is the latest twist in the legal saga surrounding Glossip, who has been scheduled for execution nine times and has eaten his last meal three times only to have his execution stayed. After nearly three decades maintaining his innocence on Oklahoma's death row and the emergence of new evidence in recent years, the US Supreme Court in February tossed Glossip's conviction and death sentence. The Glossip case is arguably the highest-profile death penalty case to reach the court in years. The court ordered that Glossip receive a new trial, finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony that may have influenced his jury. Then, Oklahoma prosecutors said last month they would retry the longtime death row inmate a third time for his role in the killing of his former boss. Since Glossip's 1998 conviction as the alleged orchestrator of a murder-for-hire scheme targeting his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese, a raft of issues with his prosecution has surfaced, coinciding with a shift of political winds now at the inmate's back. The fight to spare Glossip's life – which has drawn national attention – has been largely helmed by pro-death penalty Republicans, most notably Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond: He and others have said it's important Oklahomans have faith the death penalty is fairly administrated, and that Glossip's execution would erode trust in the state's justice system, given the questions surrounding his case. Drummond in June announced that he intends to pursue a new murder trial against Glossip on a first-degree murder charge. Drummond said that he would seek a sentence of life in prison for Glossip instead of the death penalty. Allegations surfaced that the state withheld evidence related to its star witness. Glossip's conviction rested on testimony from Van Treese's actual killer, Justin Sneed, who got a life sentence in exchange for a guilty plea and for testifying against Glossip. Sneed's testimony was the sole evidence linking Glossip, the motel's manager, to the killing. In its February decision, the Supreme Court found prosecutors had not corrected false testimony Sneed provided at trial; had they, his credibility would have suffered, undercutting his testimony – the lodestar of the prosecution's case. Years after Sneed's testimony, the state disclosed evidence that Sneed was treated for a serious psychiatric condition. The notes indicate prosecutors knew that Sneed's diagnosis and treatment at the time of Glossip's trial and, according to Glossip's supporters, hid that information from his defense. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN's Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
CNN
6 days ago
- CNN
His murder conviction was thrown out, but Richard Glossip will stay in prison while he waits for a new trial, judge rules
A judge on Wednesday denied bond for former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, keeping him in custody while he awaits a retrial after the US Supreme Court tossed his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of his former boss, according to court records. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN's Dakin Andone contributed to this report.
UPI
10-06-2025
- UPI
Oklahoma to seek new trial for death row inmate Richard Glossip
Oklahoma prosecutors will seek a new trial for death row inmate Richard Glossip. File Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI | License Photo June 10 (UPI) -- Oklahoma will seek a new murder trial for longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip but next round without the death penalty. During a status hearing at the Oklahoma County Courthouse that the state's top prosecutor said it would pursue a new murder trial for Glossip after the nation's high court ordered it earlier this year in vacating Glossip's capital conviction. "While it was clear to me and to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial, I have never proclaimed his innocence," Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a release. Glossip, 62, was twice convicted for the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, who was Glossip's boss at an Oklahoma City motel. Drummond, a Republican, vowed that Glossip will receive a fair trial but indicated he does not plan to dismiss the existing first-degree murder charges and will seek a sentence of life in prison. "After the high court remanded the matter back to district court, my office thoroughly reviewed the merits of the case against Richard Glossip and concluded that sufficient evidence exists to secure a murder conviction," said Drummond, who was supportive of the Supreme Court ruling granting Glossip a new trial. Glossip had no less than nine separate postponed execution dates. In 2001, his original 1998 conviction was overturned and a second jury found him guilty again in 2004. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-3 ruling said Glossip was to get a new trial due to prosecutorial misconduct. "Unlike past prosecutors who allowed a key witness to lie on the stand, my office will make sure Mr. Glossip receives a fair trial based on hard facts, solid evidence and truthful testimony," the state's attorney general said. Meanwhile, Glossip's next court date is June 17 in front of Oklahoma County District Judge Heather Coyle. "While I cannot go back 25 years and handle the case in the proper way that would have ensured true justice, I still have a duty to seek the justice that is available today," Drummond stated Monday.
Reuters
09-06-2025
- Reuters
Oklahoma says it will retry death-row inmate, after US Supreme Court tossed conviction
June 9 (Reuters) - Four months after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip's murder conviction and granted him a new trial, Oklahoma's attorney general said on Monday that he will retry him and seek a life sentence. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who supported Glossip's appeal to the Supreme Court of his conviction for commissioning a murder for hire, said that he will not pursue the death penalty for Glossip, who had argued on appeal that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence during his original trial. Drummond said he was not seeking the death penalty this time because the man who admitted to killing the victim in the murder-for-hire plot is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. 'While it was clear to me and to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial, I have never proclaimed his innocence,' Drummond, a Republican, said in a statement announcing his office's decision. A spokesperson for Drummond's office said they did not have a date for the trial, but that Glossip's next court date is June 17. Don Knight, an attorney for Glossip, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Drummond's office reexamined the case after the justices, in a 5-3 ruling authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, reversed a lower court's decision that had upheld Glossip's conviction and had allowed his planned execution to move forward despite his claim that prosecutors had acted improperly. Glossip, now 62, was originally convicted of commissioning a murder and sentenced to death for the killing of Barry Van Treese, owner of the Best Budget Inn motel in Oklahoma City where Glossip was a manager. He has spent 27 years in prison. All parties agree Van Treese was fatally beaten with a baseball bat by maintenance worker Justin Sneed, who eventually became the star witness for the prosecution. Sneed, who was a methamphetamine addict, confessed to the murder but avoided capital punishment by accepting a plea deal that involved testifying that Glossip paid him $10,000 to do it. Glossip admitted to helping Sneed cover up the murder after it occurred but denied knowing Sneed planned to kill Van Treese or encouraging him to do so. The evidence disclosed in 2023 by Drummond — including a prosecutor's hand-written notes from a meeting with Sneed — cast doubt on Sneed's credibility, according to Glossip's lawyers. They said they were kept in the dark about Sneed receiving psychiatric treatment for bipolar disorder immediately after his arrest, and that prosecutors failed to correct Sneed's false statement about his prescription for the medication lithium.
CNN
09-06-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Oklahoma prosecutors seek retrial of longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip after conviction tossed
Supreme CourtFacebookTweetLink Follow Oklahoma prosecutors will retry longtime death row inmate Richard Glossip a third time for his role in the 1997 killing of his former boss, Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Monday. The decision comes after the US Supreme Court in February tossed Glossip's conviction and death sentence. The court determined the original prosecutors in the case allowed a key witness to give testimony they knew to be false, violating Glossip's constitutional right to a fair trial. Glossip, who had long maintained his innocence, was twice convicted and sentenced to death for the killing of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese in what prosecutors alleged was a murder-for-hire killing. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat, but testified that he did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed was the state's key witness against Glossip and was sentenced to life in prison. After the Supreme Court's decision, Drummond, acknowledged retrying the case more than 25 years later would be difficult. Drummond had taken the unusual step of asking the court to overturn Glossip's conviction, arguing that while he believed Glossip had a role in the killing, he did not believe he had received a fair trial. 'I do not believe Richard Glossip is innocent,' Drummond said after the high court's ruling. 'The mission of this office is to seek justice, not to defend the prosecution.' Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote for five of the high court's justices, said additional prosecutorial misconduct, including interfering with Sneed's testimony, destroying evidence and withholding witness statements, further undermined confidence in the verdict. During his time on death row, courts in Oklahoma set nine different execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to death that he had three separate last meals. In 2015, he was being held in a cell next to Oklahoma's execution chamber, waiting to be strapped to a gurney and injected with drugs that would kill him. But the scheduled time for his execution came and went. And behind the walls of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, prison officials were scrambling after learning one of the lethal drugs they received to carry out the procedure didn't match the execution protocols. The drug mix-up ultimately led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on executions in Oklahoma. This is a developing story and will be updated.
