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.”
A delayed $175,000 for 50 years? Remind me to never go to Oklahoma.
Zero reason to ever go to OK.
We have very lax medical marijuana laws, a dispensary on every corner, and cheap weed.
We sure do have a lot of willfully stupid people, though.
It would be nice if you’d amend those lax medical marijuana laws to allow us Texas residents in on the deal.
Nope. You guys have been telling us how much better you are since 1909. You get your own weed. 🤣
A while back I had a cousin living in Oklahoma. He had some troubles and was hanging out with some not great people. An acquaintance’s gf/wife ended up dead and the guy pointed his finger at my cousin. He was held in jail charged with murder, but all his hearings kept getting kicked down the road. After a year they released him and told him to GTFO of the state and never return.
Which, to me, screams that they found evidence he didnt do it, but didnt want to invest money in a trial to prove his innocence, or on finding the actual suspect.
I’ve lived there, and it sucked ass. I ran away from that shit State
175k for 50 years it’s bullshit.
the fact that they’re gonna fight him on it until he dies is part of the fun, too. he’ll never see a nickel of the pittance he’s entitled to because the state arbitrarily stole and discarded most of his life.
So the prosecutor is going to be held liable for stealing 50 years of this man’s life, right?
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.
Reminds me of that joke, what did the wrongfully convicted man, who spent 50 years in prison because a prosecutor hid exonerating evidence, get for Christmas? Cancer.
Prosecutor is probably dead of old age. And if thats the case, I vote we dig them up
Worked for a pope.
Time to play a game: Without opening the article, guess Mr. Simmons’ skin color.
You almost certainly guessed correctly.
“Your honor the defendents skin color was Guilty at the time.”
I like to play this game when it comes to sex related crimes and politicians guessing their party affiliation and I’m almost never wrong.
If the state stole 50 years of my life and offered me 150k as an apology, I know what candles I’d be lighting.
Shit like this is Fucking disgusting.
I don’t understand why cases like this aren’t the only rationale needed to abolish the death penalty.
Also, that poor man - I hope he is able to live as happy a life as can be expected given the injustice that he endured.
Because death penalty supporters are okay with killing innocents if they get to feel retribution and kill someone, regardless of “justice”.
And prosecutors who intentionally withhold evidence in cases like this and death penalty cases are also “taking someone’s life”, so to speak. They’re no better than cold-blooded killers.
(Speaking of which, if only the State of Florida would stop f**king around with Tommy Zeigler.)
Lawyer here: Lock’em up. Maybe this is a radical position, but these kinds of cases demonstrate the need to do away with absolute immunity for prosecutors and judges. Qualified immunity would be more appropriate, and unlike with police, there’s never a question whether judges and prosecutors know their obligations. If you withhold evidence in order to take another man’s freedom and it can be proved against you, you should go to the penitentiary, full stop. And if you sell kids to prisons in exchange for kickbacks, you should be hanged.
This is part of the problem with having a self-regulated profession. As much as I appreciate that the ethical rules to which I’m beholden are created by people who are similarly educated and have experience with the practice of the profession, we’re well past the point that good lawyers and judges need to be holding bad ones genuinely accountable. 50 years of a man’s life isn’t worth a law license or a term on the bench. It’s not even fucking close. If you want prosecutors to stop fucking around with evidence and you want judges to stop taking bribes, their legal responsibilities need to have the same teeth as the ones they wield against others. You perpetrate a fraud on the court and it costs an innocent man 50 years–you go to jail for 50 years. Lex talionis.
And if that kind of standard means people don’t want to be prosecutors? Well, people who want to be able to withhold evidence shouldn’t be prosecutors!
No it’s because it should only be used in the most cut and dry cases.
Cases like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Hitler, Putin, Stalin.
Killing someone because they killed one person or did some heinous thing once is not a good solution.
Killing someone who has shown they do not care about human life to the point of killing multiple people either directly or indirectly is completely morally sound.
All convictions are theoretically cut and dry. The legal system has proven again and again to be far too blunt an instrument to make the kind of distinction you’re asking for. The death penalty offers no benefit beyond the satisfaction of revenge, and it inevitably leads to innocent people dying. It’s an unconscionable tradeoff.
The death penalty offers no benefit beyond the satisfaction of revenge
I’m not saying I’m in favour of the death penalty, but to play devil’s advocate it must surely be cheaper for the state to execute a man than to jail him for 50 years?
Nope. Death penalty cases usually involve so many appeals they cost more.
That source and basically every other study disagrees. It’s much more expensive to execute someone than keep them incarcerated.
With just $175k? Not likely.
Or just paying attention to the awful current state of policing in the US.
I hope he is able to live as happy a life
too late?
That’s why I included the whole “as can be expected” part.
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.
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.
Bastards could have done him the favor of just killing him. A life of suffering. Shame.
One more reason capital punishment should not be allowed.
I have no words…
Edit: It always amazes me when small government advocates who believe government is fundamentally incompetent rant and rave about the necessity and righteousness of government being able to death penalty you (or the “right” people)…
“Woopsie! Our bad lol”
- Oklahoma
now imagine he was executed for it. you can free a man after 50 years, but you can’t revive him.
175k for that is really sad.
Given how long he was in prison this is close to edging the death penalty in the slowest most painful way possible. Which is by keeping you incarcerated until the day you die…
I’d take the chair before spending 50 years in prison, especially if I didn’t even do anything.
Holy crap. In this situation i would just burn the courthouse down.
That sum is way too low, way too late and way too uncertain. What a fucking shame. He should spend the rest of his life in luxury with every wish fulfilled without even thinking about it. What a fucking shame!
