Former Oklahoma death row prisoner freed from jail as he awaits retrial
in 1997 killing
[May 15, 2026]
By JIM VERTUNO
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.”
Earlier Thursday, Judge Natalie Mai issued an order setting bond at
$500,000. Glossip must wear an electronic monitoring device and will not
be allowed to travel outside Oklahoma. He also must not contact any
witnesses in the case, or consume any drugs or alcohol.
His attorney Donald Knight had suggested Glossip was counting on
contributions to raise the money.
“Mr. Glossip has many supporters and we are hopeful those supporters can
afford the bail,” Knight said.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction, and his
longstanding claims of innocence have drawn support from Kim Kardashian
and other prominent figures.
Glossip had been sentenced to death over the 1997 killing in Oklahoma
City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, who was beaten
with a baseball bat in what prosecutors have alleged was a
murder-for-hire scheme.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that prosecutors’ decision to allow a
key witness to give testimony they knew to be false violated Glossip’s
constitutional right to a fair trial.
Glossip has remained behind bars after Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner
Drummond announced the state would seek to retry him on a murder charge
but not pursue the death penalty again.
“The court fully expects that the state will rigorously prosecute its
case going forward and the defense will provide robust representation
for Glossip,” the judge wrote in the order. “The court hopes that a new
trial, free of error, will provided all interested parties and the
citizens of Oklahoma, the closure they deserve.”
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Former death row prisoner Richard Glossip, center, exits a detention
facility alongside his wife Lea Glossip, right, after being granted
bond while awaiting retrial Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Oklahoma
City. (AP Photo/Nick Oxford)
During his time on death row, courts in Oklahoma set nine different
execution dates for Glossip, and he came so close to being put to
death that he ate three separate last meals. In 2015, he was even
held in a cell next to Oklahoma’s execution chamber, waiting to be
strapped to a gurney and die by lethal injection.
But the scheduled time for his execution came and went. Behind the
walls of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, prison officials were
scrambling after learning one of the lethal drugs they received to
carry out the procedure didn’t match the execution protocols. The
drug mix-up ultimately led to a nearly seven-year moratorium on
executions in Oklahoma.
“Mr. Glossip now has the chance to taste freedom while his defense
team continues to pursue justice on his behalf against a system that
the United States Supreme Court has found to be guilty of serious
misconduct by state prosecutors,” Knight said.
Van Treese’s family had asked the Supreme Court to leave Glossip’s
conviction and sentence intact. Attorneys for the family did not
immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Glossip’s case attracted international attention after actress Susan
Sarandon — who won an Academy Award for her portrayal of death
penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean’s fight to save a man on
Louisiana’s death row in the 1995 movie “Dead Man Walking” — took up
his cause in real life. Glossip’s case also was featured in the 2017
documentary film titled “Killing Richard Glossip.”
“Both Richard and I are grateful for the court’s decision,”
Glossip’s wife, Lea, said in a text to The Associated Press. “We
have been praying for this day.”
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