A 71-year-old man has been declared innocent in the US state of Oklahoma after spending nearly 50 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
Glynn Simmons was released after serving a total of 48 years, one month, and 18 days in prison. Simmons, along with another man, Don Roberts, was sentenced to death in 1975 for the murder of a 30-year-old liquor store clerk during a robbery in Edmond, Oklahoma.
The duo was convicted based on the testimony of a teenage customer who was shot in the head during the robbery but survived. She identified them in a police lineup, but a subsequent investigation cast significant doubt on the reliability of her identifications.
Both men had also claimed at trial that they were not even in Oklahoma at the time of the murder. US District Court Judge Amy Palumbo threw out Simmons’ conviction in July and declared him innocent.
Simmons may now be eligible for compensation.