Richard Glossip pleads guilty to accessory to murder after the fact

Richard Glossip, the Oklahoma man who spent nearly 30 years on death row before his murder conviction was overturned by the US Supreme Court last year, pleaded guilty Thursday to accessory to murder after the fact, avoiding a third murder trial, his attorney told CNN.

The plea agreement came during what was expected to be a pretrial hearing ahead of a retrial scheduled for December on a charge of first-degree murder. His sentencing is scheduled for December 17 and 18, his attorney said. His defense plans to ask for time served, while prosecutors said they intend to seek additional prison time.

The case stems from the 1997 killing of an Oklahoma City motel owner, Barry Van Treese. At two murder trials, Justin Sneed, a motel employee who admitted to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat, testified that Glossip, the motel manager, put him up to it as part of a murder-for-hire plot. Glossip was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 and again in 2004. Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony against Glossip.

While on death row, Glossip was scheduled to be put to death nine times and was served three last meals but narrowly avoided execution. In 2015, his execution was stopped at the last minute by then-Gov. Mary Fallin after officials discovered a mix-up in a shipment of lethal injection drugs.

Last year, the US Supreme Court in a split decision overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial, citing Sneed’s false testimony and the prosecution’s withholding of evidence from the defense. “We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said last June his office planned to retry Glossip on a murder charge. Drummond said Thursday that accepting the lesser charge for Glossip was a “difficult decision,” according to CNN affiliate KOKH.

“Today, Richard Glossip finally took some measure of responsibility for the murder of Barry Van Treese,” he said. “While allowing Glossip to plead guilty to the lesser-related charge of accessory to first-degree murder was a difficult decision for me, (and) more importantly, the Van Treese family, we both recognize that this path ensures a conviction related to Mr. Van Treese’s murder and gives us the best chance to secure additional prison time for Glossip.”

Don Knight, Glossip’s attorney, issued a statement reacting to the news.

“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 being an accessory after the fact,” Knight said.

“We believe Rich has more than paid his debt to society by spending nearly 30 years on death row, during which time he was served three last meals, and came within minutes of being executed for a crime he did not commit.”

“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 ten 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.”

Prosecutors intend to seek a maximum 45-year sentence, according to Drummond’s office.

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