An Oklahoma death row inmate freed from prison in May is now facing two vastly different fates: He could remain free for the rest of his life or he could have to return to his prison cell for as long as 45 years.
As part of an agreement with state prosecutors, Richard Glossip has pleaded guilty to accessory to first-degree murder after the fact in a 1997 murder-for-hire case. In exchange, the state of Oklahoma withdrew a first-degree murder charge against Glossip during a hearing on Thursday, Nov. 12.
While the deal means that Glossip, 63, won't have to face the death penalty again, he could very well lose his hard-won freedom. Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai can sentence Glossip anywhere from five to 45 years in prison at his sentencing
in December. She could give Glossip credit for time served, which would allow him to remain free.
"It's a tightrope," Glossip's attorney, Don Knight, told USA TODAY on Thursday.
"In 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 10 years ago," Knight said. "We 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."
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction, agreeing with both his own lawyers and the state of Oklahoma, which made a rare acknowledgement that Glossip didn't get a fair trial. Glossip was then able to post bond and walk out of prison in May.
During his 30 years on death row, Glossip's execution had been scheduled nine separate times before being called off, and he came so close to death that he had three last meals.
Glossip's innocence case has received public support both nationally and internationally over the years, including from celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Susan Sarandon and "Dr. Phil" McGraw.
As Glossip awaits his fate in December, here's what you need to know about the crime he was convicted of, what he has been doing since he left prison and why prosecutors decided to drop the murder charge despite saying they have strong evidence in the case.
More about Richard Glossip's case
Glossip is accused of having his boss, Barry Van Treese, an Oklahoma City motel owner, killed in 1997 to keep from being fired for embezzlement. Glossip was the motel manager.
Van Treese, 54, was found beaten to death in Room 102 of the Best Budget Inn on Jan. 7, 1997.
Justin Sneed, a motel maintenance man, confessed to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat in the motel room. He said Glossip pressured him into doing it and offered him $10,000 as payment. Sneed was the key witness against Glossip at the first two trials and had been expected to testify at the third trial.
Glossip's attorneys claim Sneed actually killed the motel owner during a botched robbery for drug money. They claim he incriminated Glossip to avoid getting the death penalty himself and later considered recanting his testimony.
Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death the first time in 1998. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw out that conviction in 2001 because of issues with Glossip's defense attorney. He was convicted and sentenced to death the second time at a 2004 retrial.
Glossip came the closest to being executed on Sept. 30, 2015. He was three hours away from execution when a doctor realized a pharmacist had supplied the wrong drug for the lethal injection. The execution was called off.
Since Glossip won his freedom in May, Knight said he has been living in Oklahoma City with his wife, whom he met and married while still on death row around 2021. Glossip has been enjoying life's simple freedoms for the past six months and "has been a model person on bond," Knight said.
"It's been a really amazing time for him. ... Everything has been as if he's experiencing it for the first time," he said. "He's extremely anxious about the possibility of losing that again."
Although the plea agreement Glossip reached with prosecutors means Glossip could return to prison, Knight said that another trial would have been extremely difficult on him and that putting the case back in the hands of another jury "would have been rolling the dice."
"We felt it was best to go on ahead and do this at this time because trials are uncertain things." Knight said.
What do prosecutors say?
In a rare move last year, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond concluded prosecutors at Glossip's trial hid evidence that might have led to an acquittal. Though Drummond acknowledged the errors, the state had maintained that they had strong evidence against Glossip for a third trial.
“We remain focused on retrying this case and securing a third conviction," Leslie Berger, press secretary for the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, said in May.
Berger and another office spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment on Thursday.
Richard Glossip gets support from Hollywood
Richard Glossip's case has received widespread attention over the years. Celebrities include Kim Kardashian and Susan Sarandon have posted about their support, and "Dr. Phil" McGraw spoke at a rally in favor of his release in 2023.
“If you do the crime, you should do the time,” McGraw said. “But if you’re doing time and didn’t commit the crime, that’s a crime.”
Kim Kardashian said in a post on X in 2023 that she believed Glossip was innocent and that he "deserves a full pardon."
"We cannot execute another man especially for a crime he didn’t commit!" she wrote. "Everyone has to hear about Richard Glossip."
Actress Susan Sarandon − who portrayed death penalty opponent Sister Helen Prejean in the 1995 movie "Dead Man Walking" − also took up Glossip's cause.
In 2015, she posted that she was pleased that a court ruling at the time would allow "his legal team time to find additional proof of his innocence."
Contributing: Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY, and Nolan Clay, Dale Denwalt and Josh Dulaney, The Oklahoman
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime and courts reporter who covers the death penalty, cold case investigations and breaking news for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Freed from 30 years on death row, Oklahoma man faces return to prison
