Man declared innocent after spending 48 years in prison in Oklahoma USA

Simmons spent 48 years, one month, and eighteen days in prison before being released in July.

In the US state of Oklahoma, a 71-year-old man was found not guilty after serving nearly 50 years in jail for a murder he did not commit.

According to The National Registry of Exonerations, Black prisoner Glynn Simmons spent the longest period of time behind bars before being declared not guilty of any crime in US history.

Simmons spent 48 years, one month, and eighteen days in prison before being released in July.

In 1975, Don Roberts and Simmons received death sentences for killing a thirty-year-old liquor store clerk in Edmond, Oklahoma, during a robbery the year before.

Simmons and Roberts were convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of a teenage customer who was shot in the head during the robbery but survived.

She picked them out of 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 at a hearing in Oklahoma County District Court on Tuesday.

“This is a day we’ve been waiting on for a long, long time,” Simmons told reporters.

“We can say justice was done today, finally.”

Roberts, Simmons co-defendant, was released from prison in 2008, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.

Simmons may now be eligible for compensation.

“What’s been done can’t be undone but there could be accountability,” he said. “That’s what I’m about right now. Accountability.”