Richard Glossip Pleads Guilty to Lesser Charge, Ending 26 Years on Death Row

After 26 years on Oklahoma’s death row, nine scheduled execution dates and a landmark Supreme Court intervention, Richard Glossip walked into an Oklahoma County courtroom on Thursday and brought one of the most contentious capital cases in modern American history to an end.

Glossip, 63, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. In exchange, the state formally dropped its capital murder charge against him, cancelling a retrial that had been set for 7 December. A two-day sentencing hearing is scheduled for 17 and 18 December in Oklahoma City.

The plea was a blind one, meaning there is no agreement on the sentence. Under Oklahoma law, accessory after the fact to first-degree murder carries up to 45 years in prison. Prosecutors and the family of the victim, Barry Van Treese, are seeking the maximum. Glossip’s lawyers will argue he should be freed for time served, noting he has already spent more than 29 years behind bars, most of it in solitary confinement on death row.

Glossip has maintained his innocence for 30 years, and his lawyer said the plea does not change that. “For 30 years Richard Glossip has maintained his innocence. After nearly executing him nine times, the State of Oklahoma has now dismissed the murder charge against him. This morning, to finally put this matter to rest, Rich pleaded guilty to be an accessory after the fact,” lead defence attorney Don Knight said in a statement.

The motel killing

The case began in the early hours of 7 January 1997, inside Room 102 of the Best Budget Inn along Interstate 40 in west Oklahoma City. The motel’s owner, 54-year-old Barry Van Treese, was beaten to death with a baseball bat. The handyman, 19-year-old Justin Sneed, confessed to the killing and, in exchange for life imprisonment without parole, testified that the motel’s manager, Glossip, had offered him $10,000 and the management job to carry it out.

Glossip was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1998. That verdict was overturned in 2001 because his defence had been unconstitutionally deficient. A second jury convicted him again in 2004 and returned him to death row. For the next two decades, the state’s case rested almost entirely on Sneed’s testimony. No physical evidence, fingerprints or DNA ever linked Glossip to the murder weapon or the crime scene.

In September 2015, Glossip came within hours of lethal injection before the governor issued an emergency stay after prison officials received the wrong drug — potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride.

The case that unravelled

The legal tide turned in 2022, when an independent investigation by the law firm Reed Smith found that prosecutors had concealed evidence about Sneed, including that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, was treated with lithium, and had repeatedly asked to take back his testimony implicating Glossip.

In an extraordinary move, Oklahoma’s Republican Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, reviewed the suppressed material in 2023 and concluded Glossip had not received a fair trial. Drummond personally asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to throw out the conviction, arguing prosecutors had violated the Constitution by failing to correct Sneed’s false statements on the witness stand.

When that court refused, the case reached the US Supreme Court. In a 5–3 decision on 25 February 2025 in Glossip v. Oklahoma, the court vacated the 2004 conviction and ordered a new trial, finding prosecutors had allowed a key witness to lie in court and had withheld crucial information about him.

Glossip was released in May 2026 after a judge set his bail at $500,000. He has lived with his wife under an electronic monitor and a 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew since then. In June 2025, Drummond had announced the state would retry Glossip but would not seek the death penalty.

What sentencing will decide

The December hearing will decide whether Glossip walks free or returns to prison. His lawyer has said that had Glossip been convicted of accessory after the fact in 1997 and given the longest possible sentence, he would have been released a decade ago.

Drummond confirmed the plea in a statement on Thursday afternoon, saying the decision to allow Glossip to plead to the lesser charge was difficult but ensures a conviction connected to Van Treese’s murder. News9 reported that Drummond said he and the Van Treese family hope the sentencing judge will consider what they describe as Glossip’s deceit, deception and complicity, and that they are seeking the maximum sentence of 45 years.

The case has drawn national attention for years, not only because of the nine execution dates but because of what it revealed about the original prosecution. Glossip was also the named plaintiff in a separate 2015 Supreme Court case, Glossip v. Gross, which upheld Oklahoma’s lethal injection protocol.

The Death Penalty Information Center, which has followed the case closely, noted that the state had been set to go to trial on 7 December, but will now proceed to sentencing on 17 December instead.

Whatever the sentence, Thursday’s plea closes a case that has spanned nearly three decades, two death sentences, a Supreme Court ruling and a rare public break between a state’s attorney general and its own prosecutors. For the family of Barry Van Treese, it brings a conviction, though not the murder conviction prosecutors originally sought. For Glossip, it removes the threat of execution for good — but leaves his freedom in the hands of a judge in December.

Frequently Asked Questions

What did Richard Glossip plead guilty to?

Accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, a lesser charge than the capital murder count Oklahoma dropped as part of the plea deal. The plea carries a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison.

How long was Glossip on death row?

Twenty-six years, from his first death sentence in 1998 until his conviction was vacated. He faced nine scheduled execution dates and came within hours of being executed in September 2015.

When will Glossip be sentenced?

A two-day sentencing hearing is scheduled for 17 and 18 December 2026 in Oklahoma County District Court. Prosecutors are seeking the maximum 45 years; the defence will argue for release based on time already served.