Richard Glossip, who spent nearly 30 years on death row in Oklahoma before receiving a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge on Thursday in order to avoid a new murder trial.
Mr. Glossip, 63, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact, his lawyer, Don Knight, said in a statement. The plea agreement means that Mr. Glossip will not be retried on a first-degree murder charge.
Mr. Knight, a lawyer who specializes in death penalty cases, said he was seeking to have Mr. Glossip freed from prison for time served, but Oklahoma said it would pursue the maximum sentence of 45 years. A jury convicted Mr. Glossip of arranging the killing in 1997 of Barry Van Treese, a motel owner in Oklahoma City. Mr. Glossip has maintained his innocence for decades, and two independent investigations found errors involving both testimony and evidence in the case. He had been in prison for nearly 30 years before he was released in May.
“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,” Mr. Knight said in a statement.
“In 1997, had Rich been given the longest possible sentence for the crime he pleaded guilty to today, he would never have been on death row and would have been released 10 years ago.”
The Supreme Court ordered a retrial last year after the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, a Republican, made the rare request that the justices to throw out Mr. Glossip’s conviction. The state of Oklahoma had set execution dates for Mr. Glossip nine times before the retrial was ordered.
By pleading guilty, Mr. Drummond said on Thursday, Mr. Glossip “took some measure of responsibility for the murder of Barry Van Treese.”
The plea deal was “a difficult decision for me and, more importantly, the Van Treese family,” Mr. Drummond said. “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.”
Sentencing on the accessory charge is scheduled for Dec. 17 and 18. Mr. Knight told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he hoped Judge Natalie Mai would sentence Mr. Glossip to time served.
Mr. Glossip’s bid to avoid execution drew the support of Oklahoma lawmakers of both parties, and attention from celebrities like Kim Kardashian. Mr. Drummond himself has said that carrying out the death sentence would be a “grave injustice.”
At the time of his conviction in 1998, prosecutors argued that Mr. Glossip, who managed Mr. Van Treese’s motel, had promised the motel handyman, Justin Sneed, $10,000 to kill Mr. Van Treese.
Mr. Sneed beat Mr. Van Treese to death and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He received a life sentence in exchange for agreeing to testify against Mr. Glossip.
Mr. Glossip’s lawyers argued that Mr. Sneed had planned and carried out the killing on his own.
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