Friday, August 16, 2024 - A man who was
exonerated after facing the death penalty and spending five
decades in prison is set to receive $7.15 million in compensation.
Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, will receive the award after filing a
lawsuit against the city of Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City.
The Edmond City Council voted on Monday, August, 12, to
settle the lawsuit and issue the award, the Associated Press reports.
A jury convicted Simmons in 1975 of killing Carolyn Rogers,
a liquor store clerk, during a robbery the year before. Simmons filed a lawsuit
arguing police had falsified their report and the prosecution withheld evidence
during his trial.
Simmons, meanwhile, maintained he was in Louisiana.
He was originally sentenced to death but later faced only
life in prison after a 1977 Supreme Court ruling on capital punishment.
The 71-year-old walked free in July 2023 after a judge
vacated his sentence and ordered a new trial.
Two months later, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vickie
Behenna said she wasn’t retrying the case as there was no more physical
evidence. At the end of the year, Simmons was exonerated and received $175,000
from the state, according to the AP.
In December, a judge exonerated Simmons, saying there was
“clear and convincing evidence” that he did not commit the crime and Simmons
has received $175,000 from the state for the wrongful conviction.
Simmons, who spent more than 48 years in prison, served the
longest sentence out of any exoneree on record, according to The National
Registry of Exonerations.
“Mr. Simmons spent a tragic amount of time incarcerated for
a crime he did not commit,” attorney Elizabeth Wang said in a statement to the
AP. “Although he will never get that time back, this settlement with Edmond
will allow him to move forward.”
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