Richard Glossip’s Wife: Meet Lea Rodger: Richard Glossip, formally known as Richard Eugene Glossip, was born on February 9, 1963, and is an American prisoner.
Glossip is currently on death row at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary after being convicted of the 1997 murder of Barry Van Treese.
Glossip’s boss, Barry Van Treese, an Oklahoma City motel owner, was beaten to death with a baseball bat at the Best Budget Inn on January 7, 1997, by Glossip’s co-worker Justin Sneed.
Sneed and Glossip both worked at the Best Budget Inn (owned by Barry Van Treese). Sneed was the caretaker while Glossip was the manager of the inn.
After Barry Van Treese’s death, Sneed confessed to committing the murder and stated that Glossip, a motel manager, had hired him to commit the murder.
In 1998, an Oklahoma jury sentenced Glossip to death for murder. In 2001, the Oklahoma Court of Appeals unanimously overturned the conviction.
According to the court, they called the case “extremely weak” and found that Glossip had unconstitutionally received ineffective assistance of counsel.
In August 2004, a second Oklahoma jury convicted Glossip of murder and sentenced him to death. Glossip complained that the prosecution had intimidated his attorney and caused him to resign.
However, in April 2007, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the death sentence with two judges in a majority, one judge strongly concurring, and two judges dissenting.
Glossip’s case attracted international attention due to the unusual nature of his conviction, namely that there was little or no corroborating evidence.
In 2015, Glossip was just steps away from the execution chamber when guards stopped the execution to check the lethal injection.
In May 2023, Richard Glossip made headlines by avoiding a fourth execution attempt following a rare intervention by the United States Supreme Court.
The court stayed the execution of Richard Glossip on Friday, May 5, 2023, after the attorney general said he did not receive a fair trial.
Glossip was scheduled to be executed on Thursday, May 18, 2023, for his role in the 1997 murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese.
The justices agreed to stay the execution while they consider whether to consider Glossip’s two pending appeals challenging his conviction on various grounds.
Don Knight, Glossip’s attorney, praised the court’s action. “We are very grateful to the United States Supreme Court for making the right decision in stopping the unlawful execution of Richard Glossip,” Knight said.
As of July 1, 2022, Glossip was one of 25 death row inmates scheduled for execution in Oklahoma. His execution was scheduled for September 22, 2022.
On August 16, 2022, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt granted a 60-day stay of execution. Glossip should then be operational on December 8, 2022.
On November 3, 2022, Governor Stitt again granted a stay of Glossip’s execution to allow the Oklahoma Court of Appeals time to address his ongoing litigation.
Glossip’s execution was postponed until February 16, 2023. On January 24, 2023, his execution was postponed until May 18, 2023.
This came after Attorney General Gentner Drummond requested a new enforcement schedule to address staffing shortages within the Department of Corrections.
At the time of writing (May 6, 2023), the U.S. Supreme Court had stayed Glossip’s execution after the state’s top lawyer said he did not benefit from a fair trial.
Glossip was scheduled to be executed on Thursday, May 18, 2023, for his role in the 1997 murder of motel owner Barry Van Treese.
Wife of Richard Glossip: Meet Lea Rodger
As of May 2023, Richard Glossip has been married twice.
While on death row, Glossip married Leigha Joy Jurasik (of New Jersey) on September 27, 2018 at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
The couple divorced in February 2021. In March 2022, Glossip married anti-death penalty activist Lea Rodger (from Florida).
Richard Glossip says he’s stayed focused on the things he wants to do when he gets out of prison.