Who Is Richard Glossip, and Why Was the Oklahoma Death Row Inmate Released?

Richard Glossip walked out of an Oklahoma County jail in jeans and a gray short-sleeved shirt in May 2026, holding hands with his wife, Lea Glossip, and stepping into a world he had not lived in freely since the 1990s.

The former Oklahoma death row inmate, 63, was released on bond set at $500,000 while he awaits a third trial in the 1997 killing of motel owner Barry Van Treese. Kim Kardashian, who has become increasingly involved in criminal justice reform cases, reportedly provided the $50,000 needed to post it.

“It’s overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time,” Glossip told the Associated Press at the time of his release. 

Glossip’s release marked a major turn in one of the country’s most scrutinized death penalty cases. He spent nearly three decades behind bars, was twice convicted and given the death penalty, and came so close to execution that he was served three last meals. Although Glossip was only twice sentenced to death, he received three last meals before three last-minute stays or delays spared him.

Through it all, he has maintained that he did not kill Van Treese. He also denies hiring anyone else to do it.

Van Treese, who owned Best Budget Inn properties in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, was beaten to death in January 1997 at the Oklahoma City motel managed by Glossip. Justin Sneed, a maintenance worker at the motel, admitted that he killed Van Treese with a baseball bat, but he told authorities that Glossip had asked him to do it.

Sneed accepted a plea deal that spared him the death penalty, but Glossip, who prosecutors accused of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot, rejected a plea offer and went to trial. In 1998, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

There was no physical evidence tying Glossip to the killing, and Sneed was the only person who directly implicated him in the alleged plot. In 2001, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Glossip’s conviction, finding that his trial counsel had been ineffective and that the evidence corroborating Sneed’s testimony was weak.

Three years later, Glossip was tried again. Sneed again testified that Glossip directed him to kill Van Treese. Glossip was again convicted and sentenced to death.

The years that followed turned his case into a flashpoint in the national debate over capital punishment. Glossip’s lawyers pointed to shifting accounts from Sneed, concerns about withheld evidence and questions about whether prosecutors had allowed misleading or false testimony to stand. Supporters argued the conviction rested too heavily on a witness who had every incentive to help himself.

His case eventually became tied to Oklahoma’s troubled lethal injection history. In 2014, Oklahoma’s execution of Clayton Lockett drew national outrage after Lockett writhed and groaned on the gurney before dying 43 minutes after the procedure began. The state later blamed problems with the IV line, but the execution intensified scrutiny of Oklahoma’s drug protocol, particularly its use of midazolam, a drug used to generate sleepiness or drowsiness and relieve anxiety before surgery or procedures.

Glossip was among the death row inmates who challenged Oklahoma’s execution procedures because midazolam does not render death row inmates unable to feel the pain associated with receiving lethal injections. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state’s use of midazolam in a case bearing his name, Glossip v. Gross.

In September 2015, Glossip came within hours of being put to death. He had already eaten what was supposed to be his final meal when officials halted the execution because the state had obtained a drug that did not match its own protocol. The mix-up contributed to a years-long halt in Oklahoma executions.

Glossip’s case kept attracting attention outside the courts. It was taken up by death penalty opponents, lawmakers from both parties, celebrities and documentary filmmakers. The 2017 documentary miniseries Killing Richard Glossip helped bring the case to a wider audience, while advocates continued pressing for a closer look at how prosecutors had secured the conviction.

In 2022, a bipartisan group of Oklahoma lawmakers commissioned an outside law firm called Reed Smith to review the case. The firm’s findings raised serious concerns about Glossip’s conviction, including issues around evidence and witness credibility. Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, later took the unusual step of acknowledging that prosecutorial misconduct had tainted the case and supported Glossip’s bid for a new trial. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed.

In 2025, the court threw out Glossip’s conviction and death sentence, ruling that prosecutors violated his constitutional right to a fair trial by allowing Sneed, their key witness, to give false testimony related to his psychiatric treatment and lithium prescription. The Court found that because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt, the jury’s assessment of his credibility was central to the verdict.

Drummond’s office has said it plans to retry Glossip for murder, though it will no longer seek the death penalty. The attorney general has said Glossip did not receive a fair trial but added that he hasn't proclaimed Glossip not guilty.

For now, while he awaits a third trial (set to begin September 28), Glossip is living under strict conditions: He must remain in Oklahoma, wear an electronic monitoring device, follow bond restrictions and avoid contact with witnesses. He is also barred from using drugs or alcohol.