Oklahoma | Glossip Denied Bond, Remains in Custody as Third Murder Trial Looms

Oklahoma City — In the latest development of a decades-long legal saga, a judge has denied bond for former death row inmate Richard Glossip, ensuring he remains in custody while awaiting a third murder trial. District Judge Heather Coyle's ruling on Wednesday came despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that overturned Glossip's previous conviction and death sentence, citing prosecutorial misconduct and false testimony.

Judge Coyle’s 18-page order, which was issued after a bond hearing on June 17, stated 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 decision largely adopted the state's original theory of the case while seemingly downplaying the significance of the Supreme Court's ruling and ignoring new evidence presented by the defense.

Glossip, 62, has spent nearly 30 years on death row for the 1997 murder of his boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese. He has consistently maintained his innocence through two prior convictions, a total of nine execution dates, and three last meals.

A Conviction Built on "Discredited Testimony"

The case against Glossip has always rested on the testimony of Justin Sneed, the motel handyman who admitted to bludgeoning Van Treese to death. In exchange for a life sentence, Sneed testified that Glossip, the motel manager, had hired him to commit the murder for $10,000. Sneed's testimony was the sole direct evidence linking Glossip to the crime.

The Supreme Court’s February decision, in which Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority, found that prosecutors had violated their constitutional duty by failing to correct false testimony provided by Sneed. Specifically, prosecutors knew that Sneed had lied under oath about never seeing a psychiatrist and that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Sotomayor concluded that "there is a reasonable likelihood that correcting Sneed’s testimony would have affected the judgment of the jury."

However, Judge Coyle's recent order heavily relies on Sneed's prior testimony, even though Glossip’s attorneys argued at the bond hearing that Sneed's testimony has been "thoroughly discredited." Prosecutors did not call Sneed as a witness at the hearing, instead asking the court to review transcripts from the 1997 preliminary hearing and the 2004 trial.

A Change of Heart for the Attorney General?

The decision to retry Glossip marks a significant turn in the position of Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond. After taking office in 2023, Drummond had ordered an independent investigation into the case. The resulting 2022 report concluded that "no reasonable jury hearing the complete record would convict Glossip of first-degree murder." Drummond then took the unprecedented step of successfully arguing to the Supreme Court that Glossip's conviction should be overturned.

But last month, Drummond announced that his office would pursue a new murder trial, though he would seek a life sentence instead of the death penalty. "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 said in a statement. He added that his office had reviewed the merits of the case and concluded that "sufficient evidence exists to secure a murder conviction."

This decision has been met with skepticism from Glossip’s defense team. Furthermore, a recent revelation from The Intercept showed an email exchange from 2023 where Drummond had tentatively agreed to a plea deal that would have allowed Glossip to go free. Glossip’s lawyers have since filed a motion to enforce the agreement, but the judge has yet to rule on the matter.

The State’s Case and the Defense’s New Evidence

During the bond hearing, prosecutors presented a communications specialist from the detention center as their witness, but for the most part relied on old evidence. Judge Coyle’s order also cited circumstantial evidence, relying on witnesses who described Glossip's behavior after Van Treese's death, such as helping Sneed put plexiglass over a broken window in the room where the body was found. However, The Intercept notes that these accounts only appear damning when viewed through the lens of Sneed's already discredited testimony.

Meanwhile, Glossip’s defense team, led by attorney Don Knight, has spent over a decade uncovering new evidence, including letters from Sneed expressing a desire to recant his testimony. The defense has also alleged that the state hid and destroyed evidence before Glossip's 2004 retrial. Knight has expressed confidence that a new, fair trial will ultimately exonerate his client.

The Van Treese family, however, remains "confident" that a new trial will lead to the same verdict as the first two.

As Glossip remains in prison, the legal battle continues, with a third trial now on the horizon for a case that has drawn national attention and been championed by a bipartisan group of Oklahoma lawmakers.

Source: Death Penalty News, Editor, July 25, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde