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The story of Richard Glossip: What death row inmate was accused of and why he has dodged execution
A motel boss beaten to death, accusations of a murder-for-hire and three last meals on death row: Sky News looks at the story of Richard Glossip, his marriages behind bars and the many delays to his execution.
Josephine Franks
Sky News reporter @jos_franks
Tuesday 2 May 2023 13:39, UK
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Richard Glossip. Pic: AP
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Death row inmate Richard Glossip could dodge execution for a fourth time after the attorney general of Oklahoma intervened in his case.
Glossip has spent more than a quarter of a century behind bars, convicted of ordering the murder of his boss.
But he has always said he is innocent, and so far those determined to see the death penalty through have been unsuccessful.
Sky News looks at the crime he was accused of, the trial that put him on death row and the issues Glossip’s supporters have found with the investigation.
What is he accused of?
Glossip was accused of ordering the 1997 killing of Barry Van Treese, the owner of a motel in Oklahoma City where he worked.
The motel’s handyman, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Mr Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat, but claimed he did so only after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000 (£8,000) to do it.
Sneed escaped the death penalty by implicating Glossip and is serving a life sentence without parole.
No physical evidence linked Glossip to the murder and the prosecution’s case rested largely on Sneed’s testimony.
The prosecution argued Glossip wanted to hide his alleged embezzlement from the motel, where he was manager, and so had Mr Van Treese killed.
Trial and conviction
Glossip has been convicted of murder and sentenced to death twice – for the same killing.
He was first convicted of murder in 1998 and faced the death penalty because he refused to accept a plea deal.
In 2001 the conviction was overturned and he was granted a retrial.
He was convicted and sentenced to death for a second time in 2004.
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Diary of an execution
An unfair trial?
Glossip has always maintained his innocence.
The attorney general of Oklahoma has filed a motion to stop the execution currently scheduled for 18 May, saying that while he did not believe Glossip is innocent, he said the trial he received was “unfair and unreliable”.
He claimed Sneed lied to the jury about Glossip’s mental health and drug use.
Republican state representative Kevin McDugle – a self-proclaimed death penalty supporter – is among those who have spoken out in support of Glossip’s claim to innocence.
He said Glossip was “totally innocent” and called for him to get a new appeals court hearing.
Read more:
Execution was set for May
Tears and hugs after Glossip reprieve
When he married anti-death penalty advocate
Law firm Reed Smith found important evidence had been lost or destroyed in a report about Glossip’s case.
It also said that a detective had improperly asked leading questions of Sneed in an effort to implicate Glossip.
Stan Perry, a lawyer with Reed Smith, said: “Our conclusion is that no reasonable juror, hearing the complete record, and the uncovered facts… would have convicted Richard Glossip of capital murder.”
The lost evidence included financial records that were destroyed in late 1999 or early 2000, before Glossip’s retrial and after his first conviction and death sentence were overturned.
These could have contradicted the prosecution’s theory that Glossip had Mr Van Treese killed to cover up his alleged embezzlement.
Listen to Glossip speaking to Sky News in 2019
Why he’s dodged the death penalty before
Glossip has eaten his last meal three times and faced nine execution dates that have been delayed.
In 2015, his execution was halted when prison officials realised they had received the wrong lethal drug.
After the mix-up, executions were halted in Oklahoma for almost seven years.
Again in 2019, three-and-a-half hours before he was due to die, there was a stay of execution.
The executions were delayed for various reasons including allowing time for legal proceedings and reviews of Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocols.
Two marriages behind bars
Glossip married 21-year-old Leighta Joy Jurasik in 2018. The couple divorced three years later.
He then married an anti-death penalty advocate inside a prison in Oklahoma in March 2022.
Lea Rodger, who was 32 at the time of the wedding, has spent more than a decade fighting for an end to capital punishment.
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