Glossip has narrowly avoided the death penalty being carried out three times — once due to a last-minute mix-up with the drugs meant to kill him. In 1998, he was convicted of offering to pay a colleague,

A lawyer for Richard Glossip said the ruling provided a step forward in his client’s efforts to escape a “decades-long nightmare” in a case that has faced substantial criticism.

The death row inmate has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, pointing to a codefendant’s confession in the shooting death of two people.