The city of Edmond, Oklahoma has agreed to pay $7.15 million to a Black man who spent roughly 50 years in jail for a murder he didn't commit.
On Monday (August 12), the Edmond City Council reached the settlement agreement with Glynn Simmons, who filed a federal lawsuit earlier this year over his wrongful incarceration, per USA Today. The settlement resolves Simmons' claims against the estate of late Edmond detective Sgt. Anthony "Tony" Garrett and the city. However, claims against the retired Oklahoma City detective Claude Shobert and his respective city are still pending.
"Mr. Simmons spent a tragic amount of time incarcerated for a crime he did not commit," attorney Elizabeth Wang said in a statement following the settlement. "Although he will never get that time back, this settlement with Edmond will allow him to move forward while also continuing to press his claims against the Oklahoma City defendants. We are very much looking forward to holding them accountable at trial in March."
Simmons was convicted in the 1974 fatal shooting of Carolyn Sue Roggers, a liquor store clerk. According to Simmons' legal team, Garrett and Shobert concealed evidence that would've proved his innocence. Simmons' lawyers also allege that the investigators falsied reports of a witness identifying Simmons in a line-up.
Simmons, and Don Roberts, another man convicted of Rogers' murder, were initially sentenced to death row before their sentences were modified to life in prison due to a 1977 Supreme Court ruling. Simmons spent 48 years in prison before he was released in 2023 by Oklahoma County Judge Amy Palumbo and determined to be "actually innocent."
According to the University of Michigan Law School's National Registry of Exonerations, Simmons was the longest-served wrongfully convicted man in U.S. history.
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