Judge Says Man Who Spent 48 Years In Prison On False Murder Conviction Is Innocent

An Oklahoma man who spent nearly half a century in prison for a murder he didn’t commit was declared innocent by a judge on Tuesday.

Glynn Simmons, 71, was released earlier this year after prosecutors agreed that key evidence in his murder trial wasn’t turned over to his defense lawyers. On Tuesday, Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo officially ruled that Simmons was innocent.

“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,” Palumbo said, according to The Associated Press .

Simmons was convicted in the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers, who was fatally shot during a liquor store robbery in Edmond.

Simmons was given a life sentence after initially being sentenced to death. He has always maintained he was in Louisiana at the time of the shooting.

He served 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison the longest wrongful imprisonment in U.S. history, according to the National Registry of Exonerations .

“This is the day we’ve been waiting on for a long, long time,” Simmons said at a news conference after Tuesday’s ruling. “It finally came. We can say justice was done today, finally, and I’m happy.” 

There’s been an uptick in exonerations over the past few years, according to the NRE . Just last week, six men around the country were freed after being wrongfully convicted for various crimes as teens or young adults. You can read their stories here .