A DEATH row inmate has been set free after nearly 30 years on death row to the point where he’s had three final meals.
The alleged killer’s release comes after the US Supreme Court threw out the conviction last year and made shocking claims about the case.
Richard Glossip was set free on Thursday after paying the $500,00 bail set for his third trial by Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai according to court documents.
Glossip will need to remain in Oklahoma and wear an electronic monitoring device, but the man who has faced nine executions in three decades is free, for now.
The move comes after the US Supreme Court sided with Glossip’s lawyers and the state of Oklahoma in saying he didn’t get a fair trial.
Glossip is accused of having his former boss Barry Van Treese, an Oklahoma City motel owner, killed in 1997.
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Glossip was the manager at the time of Van Treese’s death, and is accused of having him killed to avoid being fired for embezzlement.
Van Treese, 54, was found beaten to death in Room 102 of the Best Budget Inn on January 7, 1997 by Justin Sneed, who confessed to killing Van Treese with a baseball bat in the room.
But Sneed, a motel maintenance man, claimed that Glossip pressured him into doing so and offered him $10,000 as payment, testifying this in Glossip’s first to trials.
The key witness is expected to testify once more at the third trial, but Glossip’s defense says the story doesn’t add up.
They claim that Sneed killed Van Treese of his own accord during a botched robbery for drug money.
The defense continues that Sneed incriminated Glossip to save himself, and even considered recanting his testimony at one point.
In its decision to order a new trial, the US Supreme Court specifically pointed to false testimony from Sneed and jurors not hearing critical information about his mental health history and credibility.
Glossip was first convicted and sentenced to death in 1998 before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals threw it out in 2001 over issues with his defense attorney.
A 2004 retrial saw him convicted and sentenced to death for a second time, which led to him coming just three hours from death on September 30, 2015.
That execution was stayed only by a doctor who realized that a pharmacist supplied the wrong drug for lethal injection, forcing the execution to be called off.
Glossip’s attorneys stressed their belief that he is innocent and will eventually be truly free.
“Mr. Glossip now has the chance to taste freedom while his defense team continues to pursue justice on his behalf against a system that the United States Supreme Court has found to be guilty of serious misconduct by state prosecutors,” said his attorneys in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“United States Supreme Court has found to be guilty of serious misconduct by state prosecutors.
Mr. Glossip is deeply grateful to the many thousands of people who have expressed support for him over the years and now looks forward to the day when he is exonerated and truly free from this decades-long nightmare.”
The Oklahoma Attorney General’s office said they won’t give up in trying to secure a conviction for Glossip at his coming third trial.
“While we disagree with the court’s decision, we remain focused on retrying this case and securing a third conviction,” said Leslie Berger, press secretary for the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, per USA Today.
“Ultimately, the question of the defendant’s guilt or innocence will once again be decided by a jury of Oklahoma citizens − not a judge.”
Neither Glossip’s attorneys nor the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office immediately returned The U.S. Sun’s request for comment.
