What’s next for former Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip after the Supreme Court ordered he receive a new trial

After nearly three decades maintaining his innocence on Oklahoma’s death row, Richard Glossip this week now has the opportunity to win his freedom after the US Supreme Court ordered he receive a new trial, finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony that may have influenced his jury.

After nearly three decades maintaining his innocence on Oklahoma’s death row, Richard Glossip this week now has the opportunity to win his freedom after the US Supreme Court ordered he receive a new trial, finding prosecutors failed to correct false testimony that may have influenced his jury. The question now? Whether Oklahoma prosecutors want to retry the case at all. Since Glossip’s 1998 conviction as the alleged orchestrator of a murder-for-hire scheme targeting his boss, Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese, a raft of issues with his prosecution has surfaced, coinciding with a shift of political winds now at the inmate’s back. Aside from his attorneys, the fight to spare Glossip’s life has been largely helmed by pro-death penalty Republicans, most notably Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond: He and others have said it’s important Oklahomans have faith the death penalty is fairly administrated, and that Glossip’s execution would erode trust in the state’s justice system, given the questions surrounding his case. “I have long maintained that I do not believe Mr. Glossip is innocent, but it is now an undeniable fact that he did not receive a fair trial,” Drummond said in a statement Tuesday. Drummond and Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna – the former director of the Oklahoma Innocence Project – must now decide whether to prosecute Glossip again. That would be “difficult,” Drummond told reporters, and their choice will rest on a review of the evidence and witnesses still available more than 30 years after Van Treese’s murder.