VIDEO: City in Oklahoma Agrees to Pay $7M to Exonerated Death Row Inmate Imprisoned for 48 Years

Amy Furr

Officials in Edmond, Oklahoma, have agreed to pay more than $7 million to a man exonerated after spending 48 years behind bars for a robbery and deadly shooting in 1974.

The city council recently voted to settle the lawsuit that 71-year-old Glynn Ray Simmons filed against it and a former police detective, the Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday.

“The lawsuit alleges police falsified a report by stating that a witness who was wounded in the shooting identified Simmons and co-defendant Don Roberts as the two who robbed the store and shot the clerk,” the AP article read.

“The lawsuit also alleges police withheld evidence that the witness identified two other people as suspects,” it noted.

Simmons was freed in July 2023 once a judge ordered a new trial, the AP reported at the time. That article explained that the initial incident happened during a robbery when a liquor store clerk named Carolyn Sue Rogers was murdered at the scene in Edmond.

Watch video:

Simmons and Roberts were eventually convicted of murder, but their death sentences were later reduced to life in prison and Roberts was released on parole in 2008.

During a press conference in September 2023, Simmons commented, “When you know you’re innocent, stick with it. Don’t ever stop. Don’t ever let nobody tell you that it can’t happen because it really can”:

According to Norwood Law, the firm that worked on Simmons’ case, he spent 48 years, one month, and 18 days in prison:

At the time of his arrest, Simmons had a three-year-old boy. He was nearly a boy himself when his nightmare began at just 22 years old. The lawsuit suit says that police had no or “woefully inadequate” policies in place for conducting lineups and turning over evidence that could prove a defendant’s innocence.

It also says that critical evidence in the case was withheld from Simmons, which denied him the constitutional right to a fair trial guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

After he was released in July 2023, Simmons, who was 22 years old when he was convicted, said, “I’m free now. It’s indescribable. I did 48 years. Justice is out the window. This is mercy. I’m happy. I’m ready to move on and make something of my life.”

Per the recent AP article, he was the longest imprisoned American inmate to be exonerated.

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