Richard Glossip, the Oklahoma man who spent nearly 30 years on death row before his murder conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court last year, pleaded guilty Thursday to accessory to murder after the fact, avoiding a third murder trial, his attorney told CNN. The plea agreement came during what was expected to be a pretrial hearing ahead of a retrial scheduled for December on a charge of first-degree murder.
Instead, his sentencing is scheduled for December 17 and 18, his attorney said.
His defense plans to ask for time served, while prosecutors said they intend to seek additional prison time. âAfter 30 years, after nine execution dates, and three last meals, the state has finally admitted they do not have enough evidence to convict Richard Glossip of first-degree murder,â defense attorney Don Knight told CNNâs Jake Tapper. âThey never had enough evidence to convict him of that.â The
guilty plea is the latest twist in a sprawling legal saga for Glossip, now 63, that stems from the 1997 killing of an Oklahoma City motel owner, Barry Van Treese.
At two murder trials, Justin Sneed, a motel employee who admitted to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat, took the stand and testified Glossip, the motel manager, put him up to it as part of a murder-for-hire plot. Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 â a conviction that was overturned because of ineffective defense counsel â and then again in 2004.
Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Glossip. While on death row, Glossip was scheduled to be put to death nine times and was served three last meals but narrowly avoided execution. In 2015, his execution was stopped at the last minute by then-Gov. Mary Fallin after officials discovered a mix-up in a shipment of lethal injection drugs.
But persistent questions about Sneedâs testimony and the lack of evidence linking Glossip to the crime led to a bipartisan investigation challenging the legitimacy of the conviction. In 2023, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican, moved to vacate Glossipâs conviction.
Last year, the US Supreme Court in a split decision overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, citing Sneedâs false testimony and the prosecutionâs withholding of evidence from the defense. âWe conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,â Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. Sneed has never publicly recanted his testimony.
But Glossipâs legal team has produced witnesses who claim Sneed exonerated Glossip in private conversations, along with a handwritten note from prison in which he asks, âDo I have the choice of re-canting my testimony at anytime during my life, or anything like that.â Still, Drummond said last June his office planned to retry Glossip on a murder charge.
As he awaited his third trial, Glossip was released on bond in May thanks to funds from the celebrity and criminal reform advocate Kim Kardashian.
Glossip has maintained his innocence, attorney says Drummond said Thursday that accepting the lesser charge for Glossip was a âdifficult decision,â according to CNN affiliate KOKH. âToday, Richard Glossip finally took some measure of responsibility for the murder of Barry Van Treese,â he said. âWhile allowing Glossip to plead guilty to the lesser-related charge of accessory to first-degree murder was a
difficult decision for me, (and) more importantly, the Van Treese family, we both recognize that this path ensures a conviction related to Mr.
Van Treeseâs murder and gives us the best chance to secure additional prison time for Glossip.â Knight reiterated his client was not involved in the killing, telling Tapper the plea had ânothing at all to do with the murder of Barry Van Treese.â âHe didnât know there was going to be a murder, he didnât take part in the murder. The plea that he made was actually to accessory after the fact,â he said.
In a statement, the defense attorney said Glossip has âmore than paid his debt to society by spending nearly 30 years on death row.â âIn 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,â Knight said. âWe 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.â Glossip spoke to CNN in 2023 about the difficulty of life on death row. âItâs one of the scariest things, especially if youâre an innocent person, to know theyâre going to take your life for something you had nothing to do with,â Glossip told CNN in an exclusive interview during one of those phone calls.
After his release on bond in May, Glossip told reporters he was thankful for his wife and attorneys and said he is âjust really happy.â âItâs overwhelming, but itâs amazing at the same time,â he said. This story has been updated with additional information.
