Oklahoma | Judge weighs Richard Glossip's second request for bond

Attorneys for former death row inmate Richard Glossip are again asking an Oklahoma County judge to release him on bond while he awaits a third trial in a high-profile murder case that has stretched nearly three decades.

District Judge Natalie Mai heard arguments for and against Glossip’s release in her courtroom Thursday, Feb. 12.

Glossip, 63, has been twice convicted and sentenced to death for the 1997 killing of Oklahoma City hotel owner Barry Van Treese. Prosecutors claim Glossip paid another employee, Justin Sneed, to kill Van Treese, and helped cover up the murder.

Death penalty convictions in both trials have been reversed and remanded to a lower court — first in 2001 by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals for ineffective counsel and again in 2025 by the United States Supreme Court for prosecutorial misconduct.

After Glossip’s case was sent back to the state by the high court last February, Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced his intentions to retry Glossip, this time without the death penalty. Drummond’s decision to pursue another conviction has frustrated Glossip’s legal team, who argue the state’s top prosecutor had previously agreed to a plea deal.

Glossip’s attorneys used Drummond’s vocal criticism for a trial he said was plagued with a “litany of errors,” among other evidence, to petition for Glossip’s release from jail.

Corbin Brewster, one of Glossip’s lawyers, told Mai the evidence against Glossip does not meet the high burden of proof needed to keep him in jail while he awaits a new trial. Evidence against Glossip has likely weakened, as witnesses have died and decades have passed, Brewster said.

Brewster submitted a litany of letters of support for Glossip’s release to the court, including ones penned by Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, and Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant.

“He is simply not a flight risk,” Brewster said.

He said Glossip does not have a passport, or even a state ID, and is “deeply" committed to cooperating until his case is resolved.

Brewster also said Glossip requires medical services not available in the Oklahoma County jail, as his health has deteriorated over the 29 years since his arrest.

Meanwhile, state prosecutors argued Glossip will again be found guilty because of the “plethora” of evidence against him, untainted by the misconduct found by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Some of the best evidence against Richard Glossip is from Richard Glossip’s mouth,” said Jimmy Harmon, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office. The state requested Judge Mai review transcripts of Glossip’s two previous trials.

Harmon said Glossip has “only gotten more manipulative” while in prison, using two letters from previous romantic partners alleging manipulation to strengthen his case. He said Glossip has very few ties to Oklahoma and is not a good candidate for release.

The prosecutor argued anti-death penalty groups have taken Glossip up as “a poster child of sorts” for their cause, regardless of his actual danger to the community.

Mai said she will review Glossip’s trials to get a better sense of the evidence against him. She acknowledged the defense's argument that they have both been overturned, and should not be considered to make a determination about his eligibility for bond.

The judge gave prosecutors 30 days to get transcripts to her office, and said she aims to respond within 30 days after she gets them. In the meantime, Glossip will remain at the Oklahoma County Detention Center.

A different judge, Heather Coyle, previously ruled Glossip was not eligible for bond in July 2025, before she recused herself because of her friendship with Connie Smotherman, the prosecutor found by the Supreme Court to have committed misconduct. Coyle was one of six judges removed from Glossip’s case before it landed in Mai’s courtroom.

Source: kosu.org, Sierra Pfeifer, February 13, 2026

"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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