OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A new murder trial has been set for a former Oklahoma death row inmate who was on the brink of being executed multiple times during the three decades he spent in prison for the 1997 killing of his former boss.The Supreme Court overturned Richard Glossip’s conviction in 2025, and a state judge released the man on bond last month.His attorneys had asked the same judge to consider whether there is enough evidence to retry him, but after a hearing Tuesday, the judge ruled that a new trial would start Sept. 28.Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond had pledged to retry Glossip for first-degree murder, but is not pursuing the death penalty again.“We are pleased with the ruling,” a spokesperson, Leslie Berger, said in an email.Glossip’s attorney, Don Knight, declined to comment.Glossip had been sentenced to death for the January 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of motel owner Barry Van Treese, his former boss. Van Treese was beaten with a baseball bat in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.
Prosecutors accused Glossip of setting up Van Treese’s murder, and a co-defendant, Justin Sneed, agreed to testify against Glossip to avoid the death penalty himself. Sneed was the only witness linking Glossip directly to the crime.
