A U.S. court has overturned the death sentence of Richard Glossip, a resident of Oklahoma who spent 29 years behind bars and avoided execution nine times.
According to case records, Glossip was arrested in January 1997 on charges of organizing the murder of hotelier Barry Van Treese. The businessman was beaten with a baseball bat by hotel employee Justin Snead. While Glossip confessed to the massacre, he stated that the crime was organized by him to hide a large shortage and that he promised Snead $12,000.
In 1998, Glossip was sentenced to death. However, in 2001, the verdict was overturned, and after a new trial in 2004, it was reinstated. By 2015, Glossip had been brought to the cell for lethal injection on multiple occasions, with his execution date set nine times. On two of those instances, he avoided death at the last moment by consuming his final meal.
The defense argued that the case should be dismissed based on a theory of a botched robbery. Prosecutors were later found to have committed serious misconduct: they concealed Justin Snead’s mental health issues, destroyed critical evidence, and failed to provide witness testimony in favor of Glossip. As a result, the verdict was overturned, and Glossip was released on $500,000 bail. The prosecutor indicated he would seek a guilty verdict but without demanding execution.
