Death Penalty News

DPN asked Grok for a legal analysis of Richard Glossip’s upcoming murder retrial and its likely disposition. Most likely outcome of Richard Glossip’s retrial: acquittal or a hung jury leading to dismissal or no further prosecution, rather than a conviction for first-degree murder. A conviction remains possible but is the less probable result given the severely damaged core evidence and the state’s own prior admissions. Death is off the table. Case background

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.

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.

TAIWAN’S OLDEST DEATH ROW prisoner, Wang Xin-fu, has been denied a retrial by the Supreme Court. This occurs despite the fact that Wang has consistently maintained his innocence and, in fact, did not commit the murders for which he is on death row. In particular, Wang was sentenced to capital punishment in 2006 over the killing of two police officers at a karaoke bar in 1990. The shooting was committed by Chen Rong-jie, who was then 19. Wang was accused of ordering the hit. It is believed that Wang’s confession of guilt was extracted through torture and intimidation.

He was one of the FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives; now federal prosecutors have filed their fifth superseding indictment against Mexican cartel leader José Rodolfo Villareal-Hernández, also known as 'El Gato.'  Villareal-Hernández is connected to a 2013 Southlake murder and is facing a new charge.  The violent crime at Southlake's popular Townsquare shook the community over a decade ago. Now, 12 years later, Villareal-Hernández, who is accused of orchestrating that murder, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, interstate stalking, and now, continuing criminal enterprise. 

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.

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.

Former death row inmate Richard Glossip, who spent nearly 30 years on death row before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction earlier this year, may be released from prison today. Glossip, 62, will appear in court on Wednesday in Oklahoma City for a bond hearing regarding his potential release. The former motel manager was convicted in 1997 of commissioning the murder of his former boss Barry Van Treese, the owner of a motel in Oklahoma City. Glossip has maintained his innocence. The Supreme Court threw out Glossip’s murder conviction in February because a key witness lied in court and prosecutors withheld information about him.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is fac­ing accu­sa­tions that he broke a writ­ten agree­ment that would have freed for­mer death row pris­on­er Richard Glossip from prison more than two years ago, accord­ing to court doc­u­ments filed in mid-July 2025.  The rev­e­la­tion cen­ters on email exchanges from April 2023, where AG Drummond, in a thread with Don Knight, coun­sel for Mr. Glossip, agreed to a plea deal that would have result­ed in Mr. Glossip’s imme­di­ate release after more than two decades on death row. AG Drummond has reversed course and is now seek­ing anoth­er first-degree mur­der con­vic­tion against Mr. Glossip.

A murderer-for-hire who has been on death row for the past 33 years must be retried or released, a judge ruled, after it was found that some jurors were illegally excused based on their race or ethnic identity during the trial Because of prosecutorial misconduct in the selection of the jury in the trial of a convicted death row murderer-for-hire, a judge ruled that the man must now be freed or, at the very least, retried. The Alameda County prosecutor's office now has just 60 days to retry 71-year-old Curtis Lee Ervin or set him free, a California judge ruled at the request of California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Ervin was found guilty of a murder-for-hire in 1986 and has been on California's death row ever since.

Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama Attorney-General’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorised in three states but has never been used.

For the last 25 years, Richard Glossip has been on death row in Oklahoma, despite mounting evidence of his innocence. Richard was convicted of “masterminding” the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese, even though it is undisputed that a man named Justin Sneed actually committed the crime.  Richard’s conviction was based almost entirely on false statements made by Justin, who has since recanted his testimony and admitted to lying about Richard’s involvement in the murder. Justin only originally implicated Richard in the crime in exchange for a plea deal that spared him the death penalty. Everything about this case is a harrowing example of how the justice system can fail an innocent person — but Richard hasn’t given up his fight for freedom. 

OKLAHOMA CITY — A state appeals court on Thursday rejected a request to overturn the conviction of a high-profile death row inmate. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals punted on Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s request to vacate Richard Glossip’s conviction, which, if approved, could have paved the way for the death row inmate to get a new trial. Instead, the court set a May 18 execution date for the inmate who has spent almost 25 years on death row. After an independent review of Glossip’s case cast doubt on his conviction, Drummond asked the appeals court to remand the case to district court. Although Drummond said he is still considering his next steps after the ruling, he indicated he opposes proceeding with Glossip’s execution.

If the United States Supreme Court had gotten its way, Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip would have been executed long ago . In 2015, it turned down his challenge to the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s lethal-injection protocol and seemed to clear the way for the state to execute him. Glossip, one of this nation’s best-known death row inmates, was convicted in 2004 for his role in an alleged murder-for-hire plot in the 1997 death of Barry Van Treese, who owned the motel where Glossip was the manager. Despite the fact that he has consistently maintained his innocence and highlighted numerous disturbing problems in the state’s handling of his case, Glossip has been on the verge of execution three times before . He has been served three separate last meals. His next execution date is May 18.

At least once a week, Richard Glossip’s defense team connects on the phone — sometimes to catch up, and other times to strategize on how to save the life of the Oklahoma man on death row. Glossip, who’s been behind bars for 26 years on a capital murder conviction, now has a tablet in his cell at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and can use it to make collect phone calls. “It’s one of the scariest things, especially if you’re an innocent person, to know they’re going to take your life for something you had nothing to do with,” Glossip told CNN in an exclusive interview during one of those phone calls.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond says an independent counsel will perform a comprehensive review of Richard Glossip’s murder conviction and death sentence. Glossip has been on death-row for 25 years for the murder of Barry Van Treese.

A former suburban Houston police officer was executed Tuesday for hiring two people to kill his estranged wife nearly 30 years ago amid a contentious divorce and custody battle. Robert Fratta, 65, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the November 1994 fatal shooting of his wife, Farah. He was pronounced dead at 7:49 p.m., 24 minutes after the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing into his arms.

Fratta, who paid a teenage hitman to murder his estranged wife in 1994, is scheduled to be executed Tuesday. The Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of execution for Robert Fratta, who is scheduled to be executed in Texas Tuesday. The court denied 2 applications in which Fratta sought a stay. There are no recorded dissents. The Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of execution to Fratta, who paid a teenage hitman to murder his estranged wife in 1994.

What to know about Robert Fratta, ex-Houston cop convicted in wife's murder, as his execution nears? Ex-Missouri City police officer Robert Fratta, convicted of plotting his estranged wife's murder, is set to be executed Jan. 10 in Huntsville after spending more than 26 years on death row.