City in Oklahoma Agrees to Pay $7.15 Million to Glynn Simmons, Exonerated After 48 Years in Prison

On August 14, the Associated Press report­ed that the city of Edmond, Oklahoma agreed to pay $7.15 mil­lion to Glynn Simmons, the longest-incar­cer­at­ed inno­cent per­son in the United States. Mr. Simmons spent 48 years in prison, includ­ing two years on death row, before he was released last July. Mr. Simmons was offi­cial­ly exon­er­at­ed by a judge in December 2023 and received $175,000 from the state of Oklahoma, the max­i­mum amount allowed for wrong­ful con­vic­tions under state law. Officials have known since before Mr. Simmons’ 1975 tri­al that numer­ous wit­ness­es saw him play­ing pool in Louisiana at the time he was accused of rob­bing and mur­der­ing a store clerk in Edmond. Mr. Simmons, now age 71, is fight­ing stage 4 liv­er can­cer. His law­suit claims against Oklahoma City and a retired city detec­tive are still pending.

Mr. Simmons was fea­tured in DPI’s recent analy­sis show­ing that the length of time before exon­er­a­tion is increas­ing for death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers due to fac­tors such as offi­cial mis­con­duct and strict pro­ce­dur­al rules for appeals. For decades, Oklahoma pros­e­cu­tors with­held records show­ing that the sur­viv­ing wit­ness, who had been shot in the head, iden­ti­fied at least four oth­er men in line­ups, not Mr. Simmons or his co-defen­dant Don Roberts. Mr. Roberts, who was also con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death despite evi­dence show­ing he was in anoth­er state, was released on parole in 2008. Although District Attorney Vickie Behenna dis­missed the charges against Mr. Simmons, she has denied Mr. Roberts’ requests for for­mal exon­er­a­tion — block­ing him from receiv­ing pay­ment from the state’s wrong­ful con­vic­tion statute. Many state wrong­ful con­vic­tion statutes have strict pro­ce­dur­al require­ments that pre­vent inno­cent peo­ple from access­ing funds after release. 

“Sometimes I build myself up to feel­ing free. Then I stum­ble out here to real­i­ty, to remem­ber that, you’re not free. You can’t go out and get a job. I need a job now. But my con­vic­tions hold me back.” – Don Roberts

Studies con­sis­tent­ly show that the death penal­ty is much more expen­sive than incar­cer­a­tion for nat­ur­al life in prison, and wrong­ful con­vic­tion com­pen­sa­tion is one of the death penalty’s many ​“hid­den costs.” The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment and states decide whether and how much they will pay pris­on­ers for wrong­ful incar­cer­a­tion. Typically, the amounts increase depend­ing on the type of penal­ty, the scope of offi­cial mis­con­duct, and the length of time incar­cer­at­ed, although there are often caps on the max­i­mum amount of com­pen­sa­tion. Our data show that 71% of death row exon­er­a­tions involve offi­cial mis­con­duct — includ­ing 95% of death row exon­er­a­tions that took 30 years or longer. With the increas­ing length of time before exon­er­a­tion, cap­i­tal cas­es have result­ed in some of the largest wrong­ful con­vic­tion pay­ments. In February 2024, the city of Tampa, Florida agreed to pay $14 mil­lion to Robert DuBoise, who spent 37 years on death row before he was exon­er­at­ed by DNA test­ing. ​“This is what hap­pens when the police focus on the wrong per­son, make up evi­dence to fit their the­o­ry and don’t inves­ti­gate to find the truth,” Mr. DuBoise said. ​“Lives are ruined and com­mu­ni­ties are less safe.”