Entries tagged with “Don Roberts

Policy Issues

Costs

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Innocence

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Aug 21, 2024

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…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Aug 13, 2024

New Analysis: Innocent Death-Sentenced Prisoners Wait Longer than Ever for Exoneration

On July 1, after wait­ing 41 years for his name to be cleared, Larry Roberts became the 200th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row. A new Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis finds that Mr. Roberts’ expe­ri­ence illus­trates a trou­bling trend: for inno­cent death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, the length of time between wrong­ful con­vic­tion and exon­er­a­tion is increas­ing. In the past twen­ty years, the aver­age length of time before exon­er­a­tion has rough­ly tripled, and 2024 has the high­est-ever aver­age wait…