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48 years in prison for a murder he never committed

2024-01-06 14:32:00, Kosova & Bota CNA
48 years in prison for a murder he never committed
Glynn Simmons

Glynn Simmons took a long look out the passenger seat window of his car while driving with a friend along the highway to Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

His gaze was fixed on the starlit night sky. It was a sight the 70-year-old had not been able to witness for almost half a century, having spent most of his life in prison for a murder he did not commit.

"It's things like that... watching the seasons change, the leaves, simple things you couldn't do in prison. You couldn't enjoy yourself. You couldn't watch it," Simmons told the BBC.

Simmons was released from prison in July 2023. In December, he was found not guilty of murdering Carolyn Sue Rogers in 1974. It is the longest known wrongful conviction in the US.

He was 22 when he and a co-defendant, Don Roberts, were convicted and sentenced to death in 1975, a sentence that was later reduced to life in prison.

Simmons detailed his new freedom, his current battle with stage 4 cancer. 

"Being innocent helps you keep your faith. I would be lying if I said that I don't lose my faith many times," he said. 

Imprisonment of Simmons

In January 1975, Simmons was one of several people arrested at a party after being accused of robbery. 

He was taken to a police station, where officers asked him to talk about killing Rogers a month earlier in a liquor store robbery in suburban Oklahoma City. 

The murder of Rogers, who was working as a store clerk when she was shot in the head, remains unsolved.

"I had just turned 21. I had no prior experience with the criminal justice system. I didn't know I had a right to a lawyer, a right to refuse. I had no idea," he says. 

However, Simmons, who said he was in Louisiana at the time of the murder, was convicted. 

"I don't call it a miscarriage of justice. It wasn't a mistake. It was a deliberate act," Mr. Simmons said.

Since getting out of prison and being found not guilty, Simmons has experienced a whirlwind of emotions. 

"The most powerful thing is gratitude," he said.

He spent Christmas with his son, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. /CNA 





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