Death Penalty News

In an exclusive interview at home in Oklahoma City, Glossip describes his first days of freedom in a world he hasn’t experienced for nearly 30 years. For three decades, Richard Glossip lived on concrete. First at the Oklahoma County jail, after his arrest for murder in 1997, and then in the underground bunker housing death row inmates at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary. As with the rest of his surroundings, he eventually got used to the hard, unforgiving floors, although recently he’d developed painful swelling in his legs.

After nine execution dates, three last meals, and a Supreme Court ruling in his favor, Richard Glossip should soon walk free. Three decades after he was arrested for a capital crime he swore he didn’t commit — and more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction — former death row prisoner Richard Glossip was granted bond by an Oklahoma judge and released from jail. In an order handed down on Thursday, Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai set Glossip’s bond at $500,000. She ordered him to live with his wife, wear an electronic monitoring device, and abide by a curfew from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and forbade him from traveling outside the state.

Richard Glossip was released from jail Thursday, May 14, on a $500,000 bond, a major victory for the former death row inmate who has come so close to execution that he has had three last meals. Glossip, 63, is awaiting his third trial in his 1997 murder-for-hire case. He walked out the front door of the Oklahoma County jail, holding hands with his wife, Lea Glossip, as a stiff Oklahoma breeze whipped his hair. "I'm just thankful for my wife and my attorneys," he told reporters. "I'm just happy." His release came hours after Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai set bail in a 13-page order that pointed to issues with the key witness against him.

Former Oklahoma death row prisoner Richard Glossip was released from incarceration for the first time in nearly 30 years Thursday after posting bond while awaiting retrial for a 1997 killing that put him on the brink of execution three separate times. Glossip wore a gray short-sleeved shirt and jeans as he walked out of the jail hand-in-hand with his wife, Lea Glossip. “I’m just thankful for my wife and my attorneys. Just thankful,” he said. “It’s overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time.”

Richard Glossip will be released from jail while he awaits a new trial in the 1997 Oklahoma City motel murder case. OKLAHOMA CITY -UPDATE: An Oklahoma County judge has granted a request for bail for former Death Row inmate Richard Glossip. In a ruling on Thursday, a judge ruled that bail for Glossip would be granted while the state prepares to retry him for the 1997 murder of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese. Glossip spent more than 20 years on death row before his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2025, which found he did not receive a fair trial. He has remained in the Oklahoma County Jail while the case moves toward a retrial.

A judge is expected to decide whether Richard Glossip will be released from jail while he awaits a new trial in the 1997 Oklahoma City motel murder case. OKLAHOMA CITY -Former death row inmate Richard Glossip could learn as soon as today whether he will be released on bond while he awaits a new trial in Oklahoma County. A judge in Oklahoma City is expected to issue a ruling later today on whether Glossip will be granted bond after spending decades in custody tied to the 1997 killing of motel owner Barry Van Treese.

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.

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.

Mere months ago, Glossip seemed close to exoneration. Now he’s facing a third murder trial. In an order that reads like it was written two decades ago, an Oklahoma County judge on Wednesday denied bond for Richard Glossip, keeping him in jail while the state prepares to try him a third time for first-degree murder. In the 18-page document, District Judge Heather Coyle underplays the significance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s February ruling that overturned Glossip’s most recent conviction. The ruling instead largely adopts the state’s theory of the crime that sent Glossip to death row — while ignoring volumes of evidence that have been discovered in the intervening years.

A judge on Wednesday denied bond for former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, keeping him in custody while he awaits a retrial after the US Supreme Court tossed his conviction and death sentence in the 1997 killing of his former boss, according to court records. District Judge Heather Coyle said in the order 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 order comes after a hearing on Glossip’s motion to set bond on June 17. During the hearing, the state presented as witness a communications specialist from the Oklahoma County Detention Center, where Glossip is being held.

New information is coming to light in the case of a Dothan woman accused of putting her baby in a trash compactor in the heat of August. Jakayla Williams, 18, is charged with one count of Capital Murder. Police arrested Williams in late August after investigators said she threw her newborn baby in a dumpster with a trash compactor after secretly giving birth in her Dothan home. During a preliminary hearing Friday morning, state prosecutors revealed they would be seeking the death penalty. Williams’ defense team, comprised of Aimee Cobb Smith and Clay Wadsworth, is seeking a reasonable bond for their client, claiming she needs mental health treatment.

Former Texas death-row prisoner Clinton Young has been released from custody nearly twenty years after being sentenced to death for a double murder he has consistently said he did not commit. Young walked out of the Midland County Detention Center January 21, 2022, after the foundation posted bond to secure his freedom while prosecutors from neighboring Dawson County decide whether to retry Young on the charges.  The foundation crowdfunded contributions to cover 15% of the $150,000 cash bail to gain Young’s release. RELATED |  Texas | Former death row inmate Clinton Young released on bond The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) granted Young a new trial in September 2021 following revelations that his prosecutor from the Midland County District Attorney’s office had also secretly served as a paid clerk to county judges who presided over Young’s trial and post-conviction appeals. In a video posted on the foundation’s Facebook page, Young removed his left sneaker and sock an...

Former death row inmate Clinton Lee Young has been released on bond, after almost 20 years on death row. Young was released Thursday on a $150,000 bond after being transported in early November back to Midland County to await his new trial. The Clinton Young Foundation posted a video on its Facebook page with the caption "It’s not a win until my feet touch grass. After 20 years on death row, Clinton was finally released on bond today." The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Sept. 22 tossed a capital murder conviction and granted a new trial for Young, the death row inmate who was convicted by a Midland County jury in 2003, according to a previous Reporter-Telegram article.  Young was sentenced to death for killing Doyle Douglas, 41, and Samuel Petrey, 52, for the use of their vehicles during a 48-hour crime spree.  Petrey was kidnapped in his hometown of Eastland and killed in an oilfield near Midland. The appeals court overturned Young’s conviction because of a revelation th...

Rodricus Crawford Rodricus Crawford, a local man previously convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, was released from jail for now after a judge in Caddo District Court assigned him a $50,000 bond on Tuesday. The Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed that Crawford bonded out of jail on Tuesday evening. Crawford was convicted in 2013 of the first-degree murder of his 1-year-old son, Roderius Lott.  The Louisiana Supreme Court last week vacated the trial court's verdict , and now Crawford has the opportunity for a new trial. Crawford had been on death row in Angola. The case has drawn attention from the national media. At the hearing on Tuesday, the defense requested that Crawford's bond be set at $25,000, while the prosecution asked for $50,000. While Judge Brady O'Callaghan said the bond amount was "inappropriately low," he agreed to give the state's recommendation the benefit of the doubt. "The charge a...