After spending nearly three decades on death row and surviving nine scheduled execution dates, Richard Glossip finally tasted freedom on May 14. Per PEOPLE, Glossip, who was convicted in the 1997 murder of his boss, Barry Van Treese, was able to leave the detention facility holding hands with his wife, Lea Glossip. “I’m just thankful for my wife and my attorneys. Just thankful,” Glossip said after his release. “It’s overwhelming, but it’s amazing at the same time.”
Glossip was first convicted in 1998 for allegedly ordering the fatal beating of Van Treese, the owner of an Oklahoma City motel where Glossip worked. While that initial conviction was overturned in 2001 due to ineffective legal representation, his second trial in 2004 resulted in another conviction and a death sentence.
