A state court denied bail on July 23 for an Oklahoma man whose murder conviction the U.S. Supreme Court overturned earlier this year.

The Supreme Court on Feb. 25 voted 5–3 to throw out the conviction of Richard Eugene Glossip after the state admitted the prosecution was flawed.

The high court ordered a retrial for Glossip after it found that prosecutors, who were obligated to correct false testimony, failed to do so.

Glossip was convicted of murdering his employer, Barry Van Treese, in 1997 while working as manager of an Oklahoma City motel. Justin Sneed, also convicted in the killing, was given life imprisonment without parole in a plea deal that required him to testify against his co-worker. Glossip admitted he assisted Sneed in concealing the murder after the fact but said he didn’t know Sneed intended to kill the victim.

At the time of the murder, Sneed was a methamphetamine addict whom Glossip had hired to do maintenance work at the motel. Sneed told police that Glossip offered him $10,000 to kill Van Treese.

Judge Heather Coyle of the District Court of Oklahoma County wrote in her ruling that on June 17, Glossip’s motion for bail and the state’s counter-request for denial of bail were heard.

Glossip called no witnesses. The state called an employee of the Oklahoma County Detention Center as a witness. Coyle said she also reviewed evidence from Glossip’s preliminary hearings and the 1998 and 2004 jury trials.

Coyle noted that Glossip is charged with first-degree murder, a capital offense.

This means bail may only be denied if the court is satisfied that “the proof of guilt is evident, or the presumption thereof is great,” the judge said, citing the Oklahoma Constitution.

The court found that the state demonstrated “by clear and convincing evidence that the presumption of the defendant’s guilt of a capital offense is great,” so bail must be denied.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said he was satisfied with the new order.

“I am pleased that Judge Coyle recognized my office met our burden in demonstrating that Glossip is not entitled to bond pending his trial,” he told The Epoch Times.

Drummond said he discovered that prosecutors had withheld materials from the defense.

These items, collectively known as “Box 8,” revealed that Sneed was allowed to present false testimony without disclosing that he had been prescribed lithium by a psychiatrist for a serious psychiatric condition, Drummond said.

He recommended that Glossip’s murder conviction be set aside because of prosecutorial misconduct, in which case the state would retry him.

Despite that, the Court of Criminal Appeals for Oklahoma ruled against Glossip in April 2023. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied his bid for clemency later the same month.

The Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution in May 2023.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the high court’s opinion that the state’s disclosure of Box 8 showed that Sneed had bipolar disorder.

Given his ailment, Sneed’s drug use “could have caused impulsive outbursts of violence.” The state acknowledged that “a jail psychiatrist prescribed Sneed lithium to treat that condition, and that the prosecution allowed Sneed falsely to testify at trial that he had never seen a psychiatrist.”

“Because Sneed’s testimony was the only direct evidence of Glossip’s guilt, the jury’s assessment of Sneed’s credibility was material and necessarily determinative,” she wrote.

Drummond said on June 9 that the state will not seek the death penalty for Glossip at his retrial.

Drummond also said that the new trial will be conducted fairly.

“While it was clear to me and to the U.S. Supreme Court that Mr. Glossip did not receive a fair trial, I have never proclaimed his innocence,” he told The Epoch Times at the time.

Enough evidence exists to win a murder conviction in the case, he said.

The attorney general said he is pursuing a sentence of life imprisonment against Glossip.

It is unclear when the new trial will get underway.

This article by Matthew Vadum appeared July 25, 2025, in The Epoch Times.

Photo: Richard Eugene Glossip