Richard Glossip goes free, but his three-decade murder case goes on

Murder victim Barry Van Treese, seen in a family photo. His relatives have said they continue to believe in Richard Glossip's guilt. (U.S. Supreme Court via CNN Newsource)

Freedom for Richard Glossip cost US$50,000. It also cost 29 years of his life.

The former death row inmate convicted of murdering the owner of the motel he managed walked out of jail Thursday for the first time since 1997, after 10 per cent of his $500,000 bond was paid by celebrity and criminal reform advocate Kim Kardashian, her publicist told The Oklahoman.

“It’s overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time,” Glossip said outside the Oklahoma County Detention Center, his now-gray hair flapping in a stiff wind.

A judge’s order Thursday setting bond for Glossip, 63, came after two trials, two independent investigations, and so many appeal documents and hearings that it’s difficult to count.

Judge Natalie Mai said in her order that a 2023 statement by Oklahoma’s attorney general that there was reasonable doubt in the case meant she “cannot deny bail to Glossip.”

Although Glossip – who has maintained his innocence – was able to leave jail Thursday with an ankle monitor and mandatory curfew, his legal case will continue, as prosecutors vow to try him a third time for the Jan. 7, 1997, murder of Barry Van Treese.

Here’s how Glossip got to this point, and what’s still ahead in this unresolved case.

Glossip narrowly escapes execution multiple times

Nine execution dates have come and gone since Glossip’s first murder conviction. Three times, Glossip has come close enough to death to be served a “last meal” before his execution was delayed.

“It’s still scary, it will always be scary until they finally open this door and let me go,” Glossip told CNN in 2023.

One thing that has never been in dispute: Van Treese was not killed by Glossip. The man who wielded the baseball bat that ended the motel owner’s life was a maintenance worker named Justin Sneed.

That fact has been a repeated source of frustration for Glossip’s supporters.

“We actually know who the murderer is, and yet somebody is on death row that’s not the murderer,” said attorney Stan Perry, who helped conduct an independent review of the case at the request of state lawmakers.

The then-19-year-old Sneed was allowed to live at the motel by Glossip in exchange for his labor at a time when Van Treese appeared to be growing suspicious of his manager because of missing money, court records say.

Sneed testified Glossip had promised to pay him $10,000 to carry out the murder, testimony that came as part of a plea deal that spared Sneed’s life. Glossip acknowledged Sneed had told him about killing Van Treese – information he did not report to police – but said he only found out after it was done.

Sneed, now 48 years old, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a deal Glossip also was offered but refused, saying he wouldn’t plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit.

Sneed has never publicly recanted his testimony. But Glossip’s legal team has produced witnesses who claim Sneed exonerated Glossip in private conversations and a handwritten note from prison in which he asks, “Do I have the choice of re-canting my testimony at anytime during my life, or anything like that.”

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals – the state’s highest court in criminal cases – overturned Glossip’s original guilty verdict in 2001, saying the evidence surrounding Sneed’s testimony “was extremely weak,” and Glossip’s defence attorneys were “ineffective.”

A new trial was ordered, and in 2004 he was convicted of murder for the second time. Once again, Glossip was sentenced to death.

Like most death row inmates, Glossip’s next years were filled with a series of appeals.

The debate over plans to execute him took on more urgency in 2014, when fellow death row inmate Clayton Lockett was put to death in a botched lethal injection procedure that lasted 43 minutes and saw the prisoner writhing on the table. State officials initially said he died of a heart attack, although that was later contradicted by an autopsy.

Nine months later, Charles Warner – who was convicted of raping and murdering a child – said “It feels like acid” and “my body is on fire” when he was being executed under a similar lethal injection procedure, according to a journalist witness, although he did not show other signs of physical distress.

An autopsy report showed officials used an incorrect drug as part of its execution cocktail for Warner, The Oklahoman reported.

Glossip’s scheduled execution in Oct. 2015 was stopped at the last minute by then-Gov. Mary Fallin after officials discovered the same mix-up had taken place in another shipment of lethal injection drugs.

“At first, I was angry at Justin (Sneed), but now I feel sorry for him,” Glossip told CNN shortly after Warner’s execution. “He’s afraid of how Oklahoma will kill him if he owns up to what really happened, just like I am afraid of how they’ll kill me.”

Glossip gets unlikely allies in legal fight

As Glossip’s case stretched on, the documentary “Killing Richard Glossip” raised many questions about his convictions – and the eyebrows of Republicans in Oklahoma’s government, including supporters of capital punishment.

“Considering the facts we uncovered, and that there exists no physical forensic evidence or credible corroborating testimony linking Glossip to the crime, our conclusion is that no reasonable juror hearing the complete record would have convicted Richard Glossip of first‐degree murder,” said the law firm of Reed Smith after interviewing three dozen witnesses and reviewing more than 145,000 pages of evidence.

In response, Republican state Rep. Kevin McDugle – a death penalty supporter – said the case forced him to question the justice of capital punishment in his state.

“If we put Richard Glossip to death, I will fight in this state to abolish the death penalty simply because the process is not pure,” he said at the time.

More pushback came the following year, when Gentner Drummond – the state’s self-proclaimed “rule of law” Republican attorney general who is now running for governor – ordered a special prosecutor to conduct another investigation.

“I believe Glossip was deprived of a fair trial in which the State can have confidence in the process and result,” special prosecutor Rex Duncan wrote in his report.

“(Drummond’s) decision to seek a stay of execution and more thoroughly examine this case may be the bravest leadership decision I’ve ever witnessed, and it was absolutely the correct legal decision,” Duncan added.

Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the conviction, but the court denied the request, saying there wasn’t enough evidence of misconduct to allow it to reconsider the guilty verdict.

With the attorney general’s support, the case moved to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2024. The victim’s family told the high court they remained convinced Glossip is guilty.

“The Court should consider the effects of further delay on Barry Van Treese’s family and bring this case to a rapid conclusion,” attorneys for the Van Treese family wrote in a filing.

But in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court overturned Glossip’s conviction again, saying prosecutors had allowed Sneed to give false testimony about his mental health during the trial.

“Had the prosecution corrected Sneed on the stand, his credibility plainly would have suffered,” Sotomayor wrote. “That correction would have revealed to the jury not just that Sneed was untrustworthy … but also that Sneed was willing to lie to them under oath.”

As the case dragged on, Drummond took another step to shield Glossip from execution, asking the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board for clemency and saying Glossip’s prosecution had been indefensible.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steven Kunzweiler – who took office in 2014, long after Glossip’s convictions – attended the hearing, where clemency was denied.

McDugle – who has since left the legislature – and current Republican Rep. Justin Humphrey say they believe Kunzweiler was working behind the scenes to lobby against clemency. They filed a lawsuit Tuesday under the state Open Records Act, demanding more records be released about how the D.A. has been involved in efforts to stop Glossip’s release and keep him on death row.

“Records show that District Attorney Kunzweiler and multiple district attorneys mobilized to intervene and advocate for the execution of Richard Glossip even in the face of prosecutorial misconduct,” Humphrey said in a statement.

Kunzweiler said it was appropriate for him to attend the clemency hearing but declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“As with any pending civil litigation case, this matter will be referred for representation through the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General, and all inquiries should be directed to the designated counsel for any comment,” he told CNN affiliate KOKI Thursday.

Glossip prepares for third trial

Although the attorney general had argued for clemency for Glossip, Drummond also says the final verdict – both at trial and the court of public opinion – is still not in.

“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,” Drummond said in a statement last year. “Unlike past prosecutors who allowed a key witness to lie on the stand, my office will make sure Mr. Glossip receives a fair trial based on hard facts, solid evidence and truthful testimony.”

But the biggest threat hanging over Glossip’s head for decades is no longer on the table. Drummond said this time, prosecutors will not seek the death penalty.

The date for that trial has not yet been set. Glossip’s attorney Don Knight is convinced the passage of time that has been his client’s enemy while sitting in one prison cell after another will now work in his favor.

“This was a bad case in 1997. It was a worse case in 2004. It’ll be a disaster for the state in 2027 or whenever it’s going to be tried,” Knight told CNN’s Jake Tapper Thursday.

By Andy Rose, CNN