A murder charge against Richard Glossip, a former death row prisoner who was nearly executed multiple times, was dismissed on Thursday after being granted a retrial in the 1997 killing of his former boss, according to his attorney.
He was sentenced to death over the killing of a motel owner named Barry Van Treese, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat. Prosecutors alleged that Treese was killed in a murder-for-hire plot, but Glossip has maintained his innocence for almost 30 years.
His conviction was thrown out by the Supreme Court last year after finding issues with key witness testimony. The court determined that prosecutors admitted testimony they knew to be false, violating Glossip’s right to a fair trial.
He served nearly 30 years in prison before being released on bond in May.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced last year that he intended to retry Glossip on a first-degree murder charge, but without seeking the death penalty. But Drummond also agreed with the Supreme Court decision, saying it was “an undeniable fact that he did not receive a fair trial.”
Glossip pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of being an accessory to murder after the fact Thursday morning in order to “put this matter to rest,” according to his attorney Don Knight. His sentencing will be held in December, his attorney said.
Knight noted that Glossip would have been released a decade ago if prosecutors had originally convicted him of the accessory charge.
“We look forward to an opportunity to show why returning him to custody would not serve the interests of justice and to ending this nightmare for Rich and all concerned,” Knight said.
Prosecutors intend to seek a maximum 45-year sentence, according to Drummond’s office.
Drummond said that it was a difficult decision, but that “this path ensures a conviction related to Mr. Van Treese’s murder and gives us the best chance to secure additional prison time for Glossip.”
Since his 1998 conviction, Glossip has had nine execution dates scheduled. At least three times he has been served what was expected to be his last meal.
Richard Glossip Enters Plea Agreement as Accessory After the Fact to First Degree Murder While Still Maintaining His Innocence
Mr. Glossip was released in May 2026 after Judge Natalie Mai set his bail for $500,000 and “determined that [the court] cannot deny bail to [Mr.] Glossip while adhering to the clear and constitutional mandate” outlined by the Oklahoma Constitution and with Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s 2023 acknowledgment that evidence “does not support that he is guilty of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The state was set to go to trial on December 7, but with Mr. Glossip’s guilty plea, the state will proceed with sentencing on December 17.
Following the hearing, Mr. Glossip’s long-time attorney Don Knight released the following statement: “For 30 years Richard Glossip has maintained his innocence. After nearly executing him nine times, the State of Oklahoma has now dismissed the murder charge against him. This morning, to finally put this matter to rest, Rich pleaded guilty to be an accessory after the fact. We believe Rich has more than paid his debt to society by spending nearly 30 years on death row, during which time he was served three last meals and came within minutes of being executed for a crime he did not commit.” Mr. Knight added, “In 1997, had Rich been given the longest possible sentence for the crime he pled guilty to today, he would never have been on death row and would have been released ten years ago. We look forward to an opportunity to show why returning him to custody would not serve the interests of justice and to end this nightmare for Rich and all concerned.”
Justin Sneed, a coworker of Mr. Glossip’s, confessed to killing Mr. Van Treese but testified at trial that Mr. Glossip paid him to do so and helped cover up the killing. Mr. Sneed was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his involvement in the murder. Mr. Glossip was first sentenced to death in 1998, but his conviction was overturned in 2001. In 2004, the state again pursued a death sentence, and a jury sentenced him to death.
An independent investigation carried out by the law firm Reed Smith previously found that Mr. Sneed discussed recanting his testimony over the course of a decade, both before and after Mr. Glossip’s 2004 conviction. A handwritten note from Mr. Sneed to his attorneys states, “Do I have the choice of recanting at any time during my life?” An additional handwritten note indicates that Mr. Sneed believed his testimony to be a “mistake.” These notes were never given to Mr. Glossip’s defense team. Reed Smith’s investigation also included documentation of conversations between Mr. Sneed and Reed Smith lawyers in which he agreed that he talked with his mother and daughter about recanting his testimony, something he previously denied.
In a 5–3 decision issued in Glossip v Oklahoma on February 25, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out Mr. Glossip’s 2004 conviction for arranging Mr. Van Treese’s murder and ordered a new trial because prosecutors allowed a key witness to lie in court and withheld crucial information about the same witness. Writing for the majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that prosecutors in Mr. Glossip’s case “violated [their] constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” and thus, he “is entitled to a new trial.” Justice Sotomayor was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Amy Coney Barrett concurred in part with the majority, while Justice Gorsuch did not take part in the case’s consideration.
On June 9, 2025, AG Drummond announced his office would retry Mr. Glossip but would not seek the death penalty. The AG’s office noted that the man who admitted to actually murdering Mr. Van Treese with a baseball bat, Mr. Sneed, is serving a sentence of life without parole.
In a statement released following this announcement, AG Drummond said, “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.”
In March 2023, AG Drummond and counsel for Mr. Glossip jointly requested a stay of execution, with the AG formally admitting error in the case and asking the court to vacate Mr. Glossip’s conviction because of “material misstatements” made by Mr. Sneed.
The OCCA denied these requests, however. Glossip’s counsel appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which granted a stay of execution on May 5, 2023.
Likely outcome
(DPN)—Judge Natalie Mai will preside over a two-day sentencing hearing on December 17–18. Richard Glossip entered a blind plea to accessory after the fact. That charge carries a maximum of 45 years under the law applicable in 1997. There is no agreed sentence. Prosecutors dropped the first-degree murder charge. That charge had produced two death sentences and nine scheduled execution dates over nearly three decades.
The defense will argue for time served. They will emphasize that an ordinary 45-year accessory sentence with good-time credits would have meant release around 2016. They will also note that death-row time under a now-vacated conviction should count heavily. Glossip is now 63. He has lived lawfully on bond since May 2026.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond and the Van Treese family will push for the full 45 years. They want additional prison time to secure some further punishment tied to the 1997 killing.
Mai is unlikely to impose anything resembling decades more. She already granted him a $500,000 bond in May. She explicitly cited the constitutional problems. She also noted Drummond’s earlier admission that the evidence did not support first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the conviction in a 5–3 decision. Prosecutors failed to correct Justin Sneed’s false testimony. They also withheld information about him. Sneed, the admitted bat-wielding killer, is already serving life without parole. Independent investigations documented his discussions of recanting.
The case remains radioactive. It involves multiple last meals and near-executions on tainted evidence. Practical realities favor damage control. The state gets a conviction related to the murder. It avoids the risk of a third trial that could end in acquittal. The family gets a formal acknowledgment.
Glossip continues to maintain he did not arrange the murder. His accessory plea largely tracks his long-standing account. That account includes helping cover the broken window, seeing the body, and not immediately reporting Sneed.
He is almost certain to walk free or nearly so. Any sentence will be largely offset by time served and credits. Full additional decades are improbable. This is institutional face-saving rather than a clean resolution of guilt or innocence.
Source: nbcnews.com, Death Penalty Information Center, DPN, November 12, 2026
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