Hey, the folks, it is Friday, May fifteenth, and he had nine different execution dates. He was served three last meals, but yesterday he walked out of prison. Welcome to this what in the World episode of Amy and TJ just to hear that why what?
It is a remarkable story that is far from over, but twenty nine years in the making. We're talking about sixty three year old Richard Glossip. He was freed from an Oklahoma jail on Thursday on a five hundred thousand dollars bond to much fanfare. There was cheering, there was crying, tears of joy, My god, nearly three decades behind bars waiting to die, and he came close multiple times a.
Bunch of times. We're gonna get into some of these instances, but we are not overstating that he did have execution dates set nine different times. He did have a last meal several times. Get into how close he came on one of those occasions, Robes to being executed, but he
is breathing free air today. This story and Robe. We watch a lot of trials, and this is why we see judges take attorneys to task for mistakes they make anything that could lead to a possible mistrial or bring this into question and Robes to think that mistake like this is unconscionable, that this should be allowed. And somebody was on death row this long based on something Robes, it sounds like was easily fixable in the moment.
Look this even sounds like prosecutorial misconduct, is what it sounds like. And look this case. Glossop's case has garnered international attention. If his name sounds familiar at all, or his case sounds familiar at all, it may be because Kim Kardashian has been on X talking about this case for years now. Susan Sarandon, doctor Phil, you got celebrities surrounding this man proclaiming his innocence and frustrated that they couldn't get anyone to do anything about it until now.
And what's being done now? And we should make clear he is on death row. But he was never accused of killing anybody with his own hand, is what we are talking about. This is a murder for higher situation.
Yes, he was accused and convicted twice of being the mastermind in the brutal beating death of his boss where he worked at a motel there in Oklahoma, and it was actually in twenty twenty five, so it was last year. The Supreme Court throughout that conviction, but he still had
to remain behind bars. They would not let him out on bail until yesterday, where a judge said, the court finds it cannot deny bail to Glossip based on a letter they found from twenty twenty three three written and signed by the Oklahoma Attorney General acknowledging that the evidence that was presented against him, now now that they understand the full scope of it, quote does not support that he is guilty of first degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
So the judge said, if you actually are acknowledging that, how can you possibly justify keeping him behind bars while he awaits this third trial, And so he ordered bond to be set.
This is an argument for why we should get rid of the death helding this man got that close to death. The mistakes get made, and maybe even well meaning people, but oftentimes we see sometimes robes they're not well meaning. This is a very good argument. We got so close to getting this wrong. Now, is this man innocent? That don't know? I do not know that. But according to the courts, right now, Robes, he is because the conviction was actually thrown out.
Yes, the Supreme Court of the United States tossed out his conviction and his death sentence in February of twenty twenty five. And look, I don't know how the system works. But June of twenty twenty five, another judge said, yep, you still can't get out.
I mean, it's crazy.
And now finally he was released yesterday. He has a GPS ankle monitor, he has a ten pm to seven am curfew. He can't have any contact with any potential witnesses, the victims' family members. But he is free for the first time in three decades.
They say they're going to retry on Robes. I guess they are ill. I guess they will, But this is Robes. This is a scary, scary story. We've hear heard some of exonerations before, but to hear how many times they tried and how close they got to killing him to now to a point where well, we can say we're leaning more in the direction of that we almost killed an innocent man.
Yeah, I mean, that is very much where a lot of people stand, and it could be proven to be true. He was convicted in nineteen ninety eight. Get your head around that for the nineteen ninety seven murder of his former boss, an Oklahoma City motel owner. His boss's name was Barry Van Trees, and Van Trees's actual killer and admitted killer, his name is Justin Snead. He was nineteen
years old at the time. And what he basically did is he walked into a room in the motel room one oh two and beat Van Trees to death with a baseball bat.
Justin Snead was on the property.
He was basically given a motel room in exchange for being the maintenance man at this motel chain. So that's the connection. And we have Richard Glossip was the motel manager. So the allegation and his conviction was that Glossip accord. The motive according to prosecutors, and I guess according to Justin Sneed himself, was that he had been in bezzling funds, didn't want to get fired, and.
So he asked.
He asked me to kill his boss so that he could become the motel manager and not get caught for embezzlement.
It's a hell of a motive. Didn't see all that evidence, said trial and don't know what records they have financially and whatever else. But from all intents and purposes, by all accounts, robes that we can see overwhelmingly the evidence connecting Glossop to the crime was this guy and this guy's word alone correct.
And here is the deal.
Prosecutors knew that Justin Sneed was giving false testimony, at least in part of his testimony, did not reveal or convey that to jurors who didn't get to take that into consideration when they heard Justin Sneed testify against his I guess coworker so to speak, or I guess his boss as well too. So this is what justin Justice Sodomoyar wrote for the reason why they allowed him now to get out on bond and to overturn the conviction.
That correction of the testimony would have revealed to the jury not just that Sneed was untrustworthy, but also that Snead was willing to lie to them under oath, And with that in mind, they had to throw out the conviction. And that makes sense because according to everyone, Justin Snead, his testimony against Glossip is the only actual evidence against Glossip.
So if you can't trust his testimony. It will be interesting to see what the prosecution will be able to present to the jury this time around.
To have the option.
They didn't have the context. The jury didn't have it, and they could have made a different decision. They could have thought, Okay, yeah, he lied about that other stuff, but I believe him on this. Sure, maybe they could have, but they didn't get that option. And because of that, this guy should get another trial. And Robes, oh, man, that's that's a travestic And as we sit here, he's innocent. So I don't know, Robes. This is terrifying stuff. Yeah, about our justices, it is.
And when we I'm going to go through how this all happened. It's fascinating and you can see how it happened. So the murder happens January seventh, nineteen ninety seven. Again, Snead's staying at the motel as a maintenance worker. Gossip
is the motel manager. We have the owner, Barry Van Trees, beaten to death with a baseball bat, and Gossip initially denied knowing about the killing, but then later to police admitted that he knew because Sneed told him he killed him right so Gossip is initially just charged with accessory after the fact, so that's the only charge against him.
Sneed's charged with the murder.
Golossip gets accessory after the fact, but then Sneed testified the Golssip asked him to kill the entries to run the motel himself, and offered him ten thousand dollars, and so then police went to him or investigators. Prosecutors went to Glossip and said, hey, we know that you actually were the mastermind, so if you just plead guilty, we'll give you.
A life sentence. He said, no, I'm not going to do it. I'm innocent.
Prosecutors then offered Sneed, hey, if you'll testify, we'll offer you life in prison and we won't pursue the death penalty. He took the deal, and so then prosecutors upgraded Glossip's charge to capital murder, painted him as the mastermind, and had Snead as the star witness.
That could all be true, but prove it, that's all is every word of that their theory of the crime could still be true. This under oath liar could be telling the truth about the one thing. Yes, maybe, but is that enough to convict the guy and put him on death rough. I don't know, that's up to a jury to decide. But if a jury you get an uncon man, you have to have a perfect trial close to it if you're going to send some maia to death.
So again, when we first started, he comes as we talk about it more, the gravity of what this is, the exact thing we can never let happen. And we see a walking, talking, breathing example of how close we got to screwing this up.
Yeah, and twenty nine years if even that is yes, if Glossip is in fact innocent, he has lost paam twenty nine years of his life. When we come back, we are going to tell you because he has been convicted not once but twice and he is facing his third trial, what is in store for him? And just how close he came to being executed. Wait until you hear how he was hours away from lethal injection. Welcome
back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about a room markable, fascinating story out of Oklahoma where a death row inmate, Richard Glossip. He's sixty three years old right now, but he has spent three decades behind bars. And as we pointed out, has had nine execution dates, three final meals, after he was convicted twice for the murder of his boss back in nineteen
ninety seven. This is a remarkable story. On September thirtieth, twenty fifteen, he came three hours from his scheduled execution, a doctor realized that a pharmacist supplied the wrong drug for the lethal injection, and so they were forced to call off the execution again three hours he had his final meal. So this happened three times. Not that close, but that's the closest he came. Can you imagine just the mental aspect of that.
No, this guy is I mean, he's been through it, and I said pay him early, I mean pay him for the wrongful conviction. You might need to pay him for pain and suffering at this point for what you put that's mental anguish that this guy has gone through. And again he at this point es he is an innocent man. So what we're looking at is, I don't know how robes we I don't know how we can be supportive of this ceremony we keep going through. We wait forty years to execute somebody just to make sure, well,
we waited thirty years and we got this one wrong. Yeah, So time doesn't even help, it seems sometimes if this has been weighted out to the only reason this dude is alive is because they screwed up the drugs.
Yes, not because oops.
Supreme Court stepped in. Oops, we think he might be innocent? No, no, no, we just screw ups with the drugs.
Yeah.
And by the way, if he had been executed, then we wouldn't even be talking about this. There would be no rallying cry to prove his innocence because no one wants to admit. Certainly not a state or any prosecutor, or anyone involved in administering the punishment would want to admit or acknowledge even or investigate whether or not they got it wrong.
There's no incentive now.
His first trial, by the way, he was convicted, but that conviction was thrown out because of a defense attorney issue, some legal defense attorney issue. So he gets a second trial. He's convicted and sentenced to death for a second time. And by the way, each time, we have sneed testifying against glossip. So this third trial, now, the trial date has not been said. He does have a court date.
His next court date is June twenty third, and look, the state of Oklahoma is maintaining they have quote strong evidence against Glossip, but they do also say Snead the man in question, the man whose testimony the Supreme Court of the United States and even the Attorney.
General said.
Is not trustworthy, he is going to be testifying against Gossip once again in this third trial. This will certainly be a spectacle to watch. But in the meantime he's home with a few restrictions, but he is a freeman with an ankle monitor and we will of course continue to follow this very much developing story in the meantime, though, thank you as always for listening to us.
I'm a net roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.