Glynn Simmons, 70, who spent 48 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, has been officially exonerated by an Oklahoma judge.
Released in July after a district court discovered that crucial evidence had not been disclosed to his defense lawyers, Simmons faced the longest known wrongful sentence in the United States.
On Monday, a county district attorney concluded that there was insufficient evidence to justify a new trial. In an order issued on Tuesday, Judge Amy Palumbo formally declared Mr. Simmons innocent.
“This court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offence for which Mr Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned… was not committed by Mr Simmons,” said Oklahoma County District Judge Palumbo in her ruling.
“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.”
Glynn Simmons spent 48 years, one month, and 18 days in prison for the 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers during a liquor store robbery in an Oklahoma City suburb. At the age of 22, Simmons and co-defendant Don Roberts were convicted and initially sentenced to death in 1975, with their punishments later reduced to life imprisonment due to US Supreme Court rulings on the death penalty.
Maintaining his innocence, Simmons asserted he was in his home state of Louisiana at the time of the murder. In July, a district court vacated his sentence after discovering that prosecutors failed to disclose crucial evidence to defense lawyers, including a witness identifying other suspects.
Simmons and Roberts were convicted based partly on testimony from a teenager who had been shot in the back of the head. The National Registry of Exonerations reported that the teenager pointed to several other men during police line-ups and later contradicted some of her own testimony. Roberts was released on parole in 2008.
Individuals wrongfully convicted in Oklahoma are eligible for up to $175,000 (£138,000) in compensation. Simmons, currently battling liver cancer, has a GoFundMe campaign that has raised thousands of dollars to support his living costs and chemotherapy.