Spent half a century in prison for a crime he didn't commit: He will receive 7.15 million dollars in compensation

Glynn Ray Simmons, who was exonerated after being sentenced to death and spending nearly 50 years in prison, will now receive 7.15 million dollars in compensation. 

The 71-year-old Simmons won the lawsuit he filed against the city of Edmond, a suburb of Oklahoma City. 

According to an Associated Press report, the Edmond City Council settled the case in a vote on Monday and decided to pay the compensation.

Simmons, who spent 48 years in prison, is the longest-serving prisoner on record. 

WHAT HAPPENED?

In 1975, a jury found Simmons guilty of murdering liquor store clerk Carolyn Rogers during a robbery the previous year. Simmons claimed he was in Louisiana at the time of the murder; he filed a lawsuit alleging that the police had falsified reports and that the prosecution had withheld evidence during the trial.

Simmons was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1977. The 71-year-old man was released in July 2023 after a judge vacated his sentence and ordered a new trial. Two months later, Oklahoma District Attorney Vickie Behenna said she would not retry the case due to a lack of further physical evidence. Simmons was exonerated and received 175 thousand dollars in compensation from the state. 

According to The National Registry of Exonerations, Simmons, having spent more than 48 years in prison, became the longest-serving prisoner on record.