The Supreme Court Has Halted Richard Glossip’s Execution

In an unusual move, the U.S. Supreme Court has halted the execution of Richard Glossip, an Oklahoma inmate whose execution had been scheduled for next week even though the state’s own attorney general has said he deserves a new trial.

Glossip was convicted in 1998 of the murder of his boss, Barry Van Treese. Prosecutors claimed that Glossip instructed then-19-year Justin Sneed—a maintenance man at the motel where Glossip worked—to kill Van Treese as part of a complex murder-for-hire scheme. Sneed’s testimony was central to the prosecution’s case, and Sneed himself agreed to testify as part of a plea deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.

Soon after his conviction, problems with the case against Glossip—and particularly with Sneed’s testimony—began to show. Glossip’s conviction was overturned in 2001, and then he was re-convicted and re-sentenced to death three years later.

In the years following his second conviction, Glossip has narrowly escaped execution several times, coming so close as to have received three separate “last” meals before being spared by last-minute stays.

Over the past several years, there have been increasing calls to reexamine his case. In 2022, a probe sought by a group of bipartisan legislators concluded that the state’s investigation was severely flawed.

“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