An African-American man, Glynn Simmons has been exonerated by a court in Oklahoma 48 years after he was wrongfully convicted of murder he has consistently maintained he did not commit.
Simmons, 70, was convicted and sentenced in 1975 for the murder of Carolyn Rogers during a liquor store robbery in an Oklahoma City suburb in December 1974.
He was 22 years old when he and a co-defendant, Don Roberts, were convicted and sentenced.
However, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Amy Palumbo ruled on Tuesday that the convict was innocent of the charge.
The judge said she had reviewed decades’ worth of transcripts, reports, testimony and other evidence while preparing to make her decision before granting Simmons’ request.
“This Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offense for which Mr. Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned in the case at hand, including any lesser included offenses, was not committed by Mr. Simmons,” the judge said.
“It’s a lesson in resilience and tenacity,” Mr Simmons told reporters after the decision, according to the Associated Press. “Don’t let nobody tell you that it can’t happen, because it really can.”
He added, “What’s been done can’t be undone, but there can be accountability.”