A 71-year-old man has been found not guilty in the U.S. state of Oklahoma after spending nearly 50 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Glynn Simmons, who is African-American, is the person who has spent the most time in jail before being exonerated in U.S. history, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Simmons was released in July after spending a total of 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison. Simmons and another man, Don Roberts, were sentenced to death in 1975 for the murder of a liquor store employee during a robbery in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Their sentences were later commuted to life sentences. Simmons and Roberts were convicted separately based on the testimony of a young store customer who was shot in the head and survived.
She pointed out the men in a line of suspects set up by police, but a subsequent investigation cast significant doubt on the reliability of the woman's recognition. Both men said at trial that they were not even in Oklahoma at the time of the killing.
U.S. District Judge Amy Palumbo overturned Simmons' conviction in July and found him not guilty Tuesday at a hearing in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma.
"This is a day I've waited a long, long time for," Simmons told reporters. "We can say that justice was finally served today."
Roberts, a co-defendant with Simmons, was released from prison in 2008, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Simmons will now be able to demand compensation. "What has been done cannot be undone, but there could be responsibilities," he said. "That's where I'm at now. Responsibilities."
- United States