1 of 1 Glynn Simmons served 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison for the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers during a robbery at a liquor store in suburban Oklahoma City Photo: NEWS9, OKLAHOMA CITY KWTV Glynn Simmons served 48 Years, a month and 18 days in prison for the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers during a robbery at a liquor store in suburban Oklahoma City Photo: NEWS9, OKLAHOMA CITY KWTV
An Oklahoma judge has acquitted a man who served 48 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
To date, this is the longest unjust sentence in the United States.
Glynn Simmons, 70, was released in July after a district court found that key evidence in his case had not been turned over to defense attorneys.
On Monday (December 18), a district attorney said there was insufficient evidence to justify a new trial.
In an order issued on Tuesday (December 19), Judge Amy Palumbo declared Simmons innocent.
“This court finds, based on clear and convincing evidence, that the crime for which Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned was not committed by him,” Palumbo wrote in the ruling.
“This is a lesson in resilience and tenacity,” Simmons told reporters after the decision, according to the Associated Press.
“Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t happen, because it really does.”
Simmons served 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison for the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers during a robbery of a liquor store in a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma's capital and most populous city.
Simmons was 22 when he and a codefendant, Don Roberts, were sentenced to death in 1975.
The sentences were later reduced to life in prison due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the death penalty.
Simmons maintained his innocence and said he was in his home state of Louisiana at the time of the crime.
He smiled as the court declared his innocence on Tuesday (December 19). Simmons, dressed in a gray sweater and softspoken, later told reporters that he had been waiting for this moment for a “long, long time.”
“What has been done cannot be undone, but there can be accountability,” he explained.
A district court overturned the verdict in July after concluding that prosecutors had not turned over all evidence to defense attorneys, including that a witness had identified other suspects.
Simmons and Roberts were convicted in part based on the testimony of a teenager who was shot in the back of the head but survived.
The young man implied the involvement of several other men in the police investigation and later contradicted some statements, according to the National Registry of Exemptions, a project that reviews problematic court decisions.
Roberts was paroled in 2008.
Wrongfully convicted people serving prison sentences in Oklahoma are entitled to compensation of up to $175,000.
According to a fundraising page he set up, Simmons was diagnosed with liver cancer.
The online campaign received thousands of dollars, which helped fund some of the treatment.