(Los Angeles) A 71-year-old African-American man will receive $7.15 million in compensation after languishing in prison for nearly half a century for a murder he did not commit in Oklahoma, in the central United States.
Before he was exonerated last year, Simmons had become the longest-serving inmate in U.S. history, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Released after 48 years, one month and eighteen days in prison, he had filed a complaint against the city of Edmond, Oklahoma, and against a detective who had helped lead to his arrest.
PHOTO DOUG HOKE, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Glynn Simmons
On Monday, the city’s council approved a financial settlement to avoid a court battle, according to public records.
The compensation ends “part” of the lawsuits filed “against cities and police who falsified evidence.” […] to charge him with murder,” Mr. Simmons’ lawyers said in a statement released Tuesday.
“Mr. Simmons has spent a tragically long time in prison for a crime he did not commit,” said Elizabeth Wang, one of his attorneys. “While he will never get that time back, this agreement with Edmond will allow him to move forward while continuing to pursue his rights against Oklahoma City and a detective.”
Contacted by AFP, the city of Edmond declined to comment.
Mr. Simmons was sentenced to death in 1975, along with another man, Don Roberts, for the murder of a liquor store clerk during a robbery in Edmond.
Their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.
The conviction of the two men was decided on the basis of the simple testimony of a customer of the store, a teenager, who was shot in the head during the burglary, but who survived.
The teenager had claimed to have recognised them during the line-up, but a subsequent investigation called her claims into question.
During the trial, both men explained that they were not in Oklahoma on the day of the murder.
Mr Simmons’ conviction was overturned in July 2023 by the US courts. He was officially declared innocent in December.
Don Roberts, the other convict in the case, was released from prison in 2008, according to the U.S. National Registry of Exonerations.