An Oklahoma city has agreed to pay more than $7 million in restitution to a former death row inmate who was exonerated after serving nearly 50 years in prison, making him the longest-serving inmate ever to be exonerated.
The Edmond City Council voted without comment Monday to settle a lawsuit filed by Glynn Ray Simmons, 71, against a suburban Oklahoma City resident and a former police detective for $7.15 million.
“Mr. Simmons has served a devastatingly long period of incarceration for a crime he did not commit,” his lawyer, Elizabeth Wang, said in a statement. “While he can never get that time back, this settlement with Mr. Edmond will allow him to move forward with his life.”
The lawsuit, which makes similar claims against Oklahoma City and a retired Oklahoma City detective who also investigated the robbery and shooting, is not affected by the settlement and remains pending.
An Oklahoma City spokesman said Wednesday the city does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit alleges that police falsified the report to say 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 lawsuit also alleges that police concealed evidence that witnesses identified two other men as suspects.
Simmons Released from prison He is due to be released in July 2023 after a judge vacated his conviction and sentence and ordered a new trial.
District Attorney Vicki Behenna said in September Not to retry the case Because there is no longer any physical evidence against Simmons.
In December, a judge acquitted Simmons, saying there was “clear and convincing evidence” that he did not commit a crime, and Simmons received $175,000 in damages from the state of Oklahoma for his wrongful conviction.
Simmons served 48 years, one month and 18 days, making him the longest serving exonerated prisoner in the United States. According to the data It is kept by the National Registry of Exonerations.
Both Simmons and Roberts, who claim to have been in Louisiana at the time of the crime, were convicted of the murder of liquor store clerk Carolyn Sue Rogers and sentenced to death.
Following a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty, their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, and Roberts was paroled in 2008.
