Oklahoma | Former death row inmate Richard Glossip seeks release over health issues

Former death row inmate Richard Glossip is asking again to be released on bond from jail in part because of health issues that his attorneys called "potentially life threatening."

His new trial judge has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 12 on his request.

For years, Glossip was the state's highest-profile death row inmate because of the celebrity support for his innocence claim, his close calls in avoiding execution and a 2017 documentary about his case.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed his 2004 murder conviction on prosecutorial misconduct grounds. He now faces a third trial.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced in June that Glossip would be prosecuted again, but the death penalty will not be sought. He has been in the Oklahoma County jail since April.

In the latest bond request, his attorneys revealed Glossip is taking medicine for high blood pressure and for a plaque buildup in his arteries.

They also told the judge he has begun suffering in jail from leg swelling and painful cramps that could be due to a blood clot or deep vein thrombosis. "These conditions are potentially life threatening," they wrote.

The attorneys revealed he also has a mass in his abdomen and another mass in his groin.

"While the lack of meaningful treatment is a real concern for all the inmates being held in the Oklahoma County Detention Center, it is particularly problematic for Mr. Glossip, who is 62 years old, has suffered the unspeakable trauma of nine execution dates, has physical conditions that require diagnosis and regular meaningful medical treatment and whose criminal liability has been called into question," they wrote.

If released on bond, he will live with his wife, Lea Glossip, the attorneys told the judge.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys met with the new trial judge on Dec. 29 to schedule the bond hearing. Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai was assigned to oversee the case on Dec. 2 after six other judges recused.

Five of those judges were former prosecutors, and defense attorneys asked them to step down from the case to avoid public doubts about their impartiality.

One judge at first refused to step down but did so after being asked to a second time. "It's obvious from today's long hearing that the defense wished to make the court a distraction in this case to get what they want," District Judge Susan Stallings said in October. "In order to move this case along, in order to stop this dog-and-pony show so they can continue on their journey to get the judge they want, the court is going to recuse."

Mai has been a judge in Oklahoma County for almost seven years. She now focuses mostly on civil litigation but has experience overseeing criminal trials. She also presides over the state's multicounty grand jury.

Mai also scheduled a hearing for Feb. 13 on Glossip's claim that he has a plea deal in his case.

Under the 2023 deal, he will be sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, according to his attorneys. He would get credit for his time in prison and be released immediately.

The attorney general claims the deal was never finalized and is now off.

Glossip was denied bond in July.

In a written order, District Judge Heather Coyle found prosecutors sufficiently showed "by clear and convincing evidence that the presumption of the defendant's guilt of a capital offense is great."

Coyle stepped down from the case in August.

The background of Richard Glossip's case

Glossip is accused of having his boss, Barry Van Treese, an Oklahoma City motel owner, killed in 1997 to keep from being fired for embezzlement. Glossip was the motel manager.

Van Treese was found beaten to death in Room 102 of the Best Budget Inn on Jan. 7, 1997. The victim was 54 and lived in Lawton.

Justin Sneed, a motel maintenance man, confessed to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat in the motel room. He said Glossip pressured him into doing it and offered him $10,000 as payment. Sneed was the key witness against Glossip at the first two trials and is expected to testify again at the third trial.

Glossip's attorneys claim Sneed actually killed the motel owner during a botched robbery for drug money. They claim he incriminated Glossip to avoid getting the death penalty himself and later considered recanting his testimony.

Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death the first time in 1998. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out that conviction in 2001 because of issues with his defense attorney. He was convicted and sentenced to death the second time at a 2004 retrial.

Glossip came the closest to being executed on Sept. 30, 2015. He was three hours away from execution when a doctor realized a pharmacist had supplied the wrong drug for the lethal injection. The execution ended up being called off.

The mistake contributed to a hiatus in executions in Oklahoma that lasted years.

Source: oklahoman.com, Nolan Clay, December 29, 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

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