cybersecdn- A 71-year-old guy from Oklahoma was found not guilty after more than 48 years in prison. He is the longest-serving prisoner to be found not guilty in U.S. history.
Not long ago, Glynn Simmons was in jail on murder charges. He was released after officials admitted that important evidence in his case had not been given to his defense lawyers. A police report also said that bystanders might have known who other suspects were.
As more evidence came in, there was a new trial. On Tuesday, Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo finally found Simmons not guilty.
Simmons had been locked up for 48 years, one month, and eighteen days. The National Registry of Exonerations says that this is the longest time someone has been locked up and then found not guilty of a crime.
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Antony Mazza has the second-longest sentence. He was jailed for 47 years and two months for murder and robbery before his case was overturned in 2020.
The registry says that people who have been found not guilty have spent an average of just over nine years in jail.
“It’s a lesson in strength and determination,” Simmons told the press after the decision on Tuesday. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be cleared, because you can.”
Simmons was first given the death penalty in 1975 for killing Carolyn Sue Rogers in an Edmond liquor shop. The 71-year-old man has said that he was in Louisiana when the crime happened and is not guilty at all.
After the U.S. Supreme Court put new limits on the death penalty in 1977, his term was cut down to life in prison.
Simmons can also get up to $175,000 from the state for being wrongfully convicted, and the decision on Tuesday also lets him sue Oklahoma City and the police officers involved in his conviction in federal court.
Joe Norwood, a defense lawyer, says that payment “is not for sure” and could be a long time coming.
For now, Simmons has set up a GoFundMe page to get money for important things.
“I want to use the time I have left to help people who are still stuck like I was,” he writes on the site. “This system needs to be fixed so that somebody else never has to go through what I did!”
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