A 71-year-old African-American man will receive $7.15 million in compensation after spending nearly half a century in prison for a murder he did not commit in Oklahoma, in the central United States.
• Also read: Exonerated after 48 years in prison, he has only 5 years to live due to cancer
• Also read: Man in US found innocent after 48 years in prison
Before he was exonerated last year, Simmons had become the longest-serving inmate in U.S. history, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
Released after 48 years, one month and eighteen days in prison, he had filed a complaint against the city of Edmond, Oklahoma, and against a detective who had helped lead to his arrest.
On Monday, the city’s council approved a financial settlement to avoid a court battle, according to public records.
The settlement ends “part of” the lawsuits filed “against the cities and police who tampered with evidence (…) to frame him for murder,” Mr. Simmons’ lawyers said in a statement Tuesday.
“Mr. Simmons has spent a tragically long time in prison for a crime he did not commit,” said Elizabeth Wang, one of his attorneys. “While he will never get that time back, this agreement with Edmond will allow him to move forward while continuing to pursue his rights against Oklahoma City and a detective.”
Contacted by AFP, the City of Edmond declined to comment.
Mr. Simmons was sentenced to death in 1975, along with another man, Don Roberts, for the murder of a liquor store clerk during a robbery in Edmond.
Their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.
The conviction of the two men was decided on the basis of the simple testimony of a customer of the store, a teenager, who was shot in the head during the burglary, but who survived.
The teenager had claimed to have recognised them during the line-up, but a subsequent investigation called her claims into question.
During the trial, both men explained that they were not in Oklahoma on the day of the murder.
Mr Simmons’ conviction was overturned by the US courts in July 2023. He was officially declared innocent in December.
Don Roberts, the other convict in the case, was released from prison in 2008, according to the U.S. National Registry of Exonerations.
