Glynn Simmons Exonerated 48 Years After He Was Sentenced to Death in Oklahoma

Glynn Simmons, who was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma in 1975, has been exon­er­at­ed after Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna dropped charges against him. Mr. Simmons told The Black Wall Street Times, ​“I’m hap­py, and I’m free. It’s a long, long strug­gle. … We need to reimag­ine jus­tice and how we do it.” DA Behenna said of the case, ​“One of the things that I stand by very strong­ly is a defen­dan­t’s right to a fair tri­al, where he has all the evi­dence to defend him­self. That did­n’t happen here.” 

Mr. Simmons was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of Carolyn Sue Rogers and wound­ing of anoth­er woman at a liquor store. Prosecutors said the sur­viv­ing vic­tim iden­ti­fied Mr. Simmons out of a line up, but nev­er told the jury or defense team that she had also iden­ti­fied oth­er peo­ple in the line up. In 1977, his sen­tence was reduced to life in prison as a result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision. 

In July 2023, at the request of DA Behenna, Judge Amy Palumbo vacat­ed Mr. Simmons’ con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al. Mr. Simmons was released on bond. On September 11, 2023, DA Behenna announced she was request­ing dis­missal of the case against Mr. Simmons. In a press release, she said, ​“the District Attorney deter­mined the state will not be able to meet its bur­den at tri­al and prove beyond a rea­son­able doubt that Simmons was respon­si­ble for Ms. Rogers’ mur­der.” She explained that there was no longer any phys­i­cal evi­dence in the case, wit­ness­es and detec­tives were deceased or unavail­able, and ​“The defense alleges that their alter­nate sus­pect was iden­ti­fied in one of the line­ups.” On September 19, 2023, Judge Palumbo grant­ed DA Behenna’s request, dis­miss­ing the charges against Mr. Simmons. 

Mr. Simmons is the 195^th per­son exon­er­at­ed after being sen­tenced to death since 1973, and the 11^th in Oklahoma. Six of Oklahoma’s exon­er­a­tions orig­i­nat­ed in Oklahoma County. It is tied with Cuyahoga County, Ohio and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania for the sec­ond-most death row exon­er­a­tions of any coun­ty in the U.S., behind Cook County, Illinois. All four of those coun­ties have pat­terns of sys­temic mis­con­duct by police and/​or pros­e­cu­tors. He is the third per­son exon­er­at­ed in 2023.