A city in Oklahoma has agreed to pay a settlement of more than $7 million to a former death row inmate who was exonerated after nearly 50 years in prison over his wrongful incarceration.
Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, was the longest-serving inmate to be deemed innocent of a crime. He had been convicted of robbing a liquor store and fatally shooting the clerk, but has maintained that he was in Louisiana when the crime occurred.
The Edmond City Council voted last week to settle the lawsuit Simmons brought against the city and a former police detective for $7.15 million, according to The Associated Press.
“Mr. Simmons spent a tragic amount of time incarcerated for a crime he did not commit,” Simmons’ attorney, Elizabeth Wang said in a statement. “Although he will never get that time back, this settlement with Edmond will allow him to move forward” with his life.
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Police allegedly falsified a report by saying that a witness who was wounded in the shooting identified Simmons and co-defendant Don Roberts as the suspects who robbed the store and shot the clerk, according to the lawsuit, which also says police withheld evidence showing that the witness identified two other people as suspects.
Simmons was freed from prison in July of last year after a judge vacated his conviction and sentence and ordered a new trial.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vickie Behenna said two months later that she would not retry the case since there is no longer physical evidence against Simmons.
A judge exonerated Simmons in December, stating that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that he was innocent.
Simmons received $175,000 from the state of Oklahoma for his wrongful conviction.
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He served 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison, making him the longest serving inmate in the U.S. to be exonerated, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.
Simmons and Roberts were both convicted in 1975 of the 1974 murder of 30-year-old liquor store clerk Carolyn Sue Rogers, and both were sentenced to death.
Their sentences were reduced to life in prison in 1977 following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring capital punishment unconstitutional, which led the Oklahoma Supreme Court to rule that all death penalty sentences before July 24, 1976, should be commuted to life in prison without parole.
Roberts was released on parole in 2008.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
