An Oklahoma judge has exonerated a man who spent nearly 50 years in prison for murder, the longest serving inmate to be declared innocent of the crime.

Glynn Simmons, 71, who was released in July after prosecutors agreed that key evidence in his case was not turned over to his defense lawyers, was ruled innocent Tuesday.

“This court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offense for which Mr. Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned… was not committed by Mr. Simmons,” according to the ruling by Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo.

The ruling makes Simmons eligible for up to $175,000 in compensation from the state for wrongful conviction and opens the door for a federal lawsuit against Oklahoma City and law enforcement involved in Simmons’ arrest and conviction, defense attorney Joe Norwood said Wednesday.

Compensation, though, is likely years away, Norwood said and Simmons is currently living on donations while undergoing treatment for cancer that was detected after his release from prison.

“Glynn is having to live off of GoFundMe, that’s literally how the man is surviving right now, paying rent, buying food,” Norwood said. “Getting him compensation, and getting compensation is not for sure, is in the future and he has to sustain himself now.”

  • Rosco
    30•6 months ago

    State takes your freedom for the majority of your life on a mistake, the reparation is not even enough to buy a fucking house, and it has to wait years for it. If they wanted to make fun of him one last time, they should have just given him a “Get Well Soon” card for his cancer, that would have been less cruel.

    • @[email protected]
      25•6 months ago

      Let’s treat imprisonment of the innocent as if it were their job while they were in prison.

      Since they can’t ever leave they’re always engaged to wait so need to be paid 24/7, which comes out to 232 hours a week after the overtime bump. Take that money, throw it in the market with an average 5% return and run the numbers

      At 7.25 (current minimum wage) it’d be around 8 million.

      Take the hourly rate of the median individual income, and it’s 80 million.

      The state apparently values an innocent person’s freedom at 17 cents an hour.