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Thread: Glynn Ray Simmons - Oklahoma

  1. #1
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    Glynn Ray Simmons - Oklahoma




    Former death row inmate should get new trial over 1974 murder, new DA says

    By Nolan Clay
    The Oklahoman

    For almost 50 years, convict Glynn Ray Simmons has insisted he was in a suburb of New Orleans when a store clerk was fatally shot during a liquor store robbery in Edmond on Dec. 30, 1974.

    "I don't know where Edmond's at," the former death row inmate told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in 1991.

    "No matter how long I stay here, I'll say the same thing."

    At his murder trial, alibi witnesses testified he was playing pool in Harvey, Louisiana, that day. A jury convicted him anyway, after a customer identified him as one of the two robbers.

    On Friday, Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna asked a judge to grant Simmons a new trial to best serve justice.

    District Judge Amy Palumbo could rule on the request as early as Tuesday. Simmons remains in prison for now.

    Police report on suspect lineup prompted request, DA says

    The new DA said she was making the request because a significant police report on a suspect lineup was not turned over to his defense attorney for trial.

    "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. That's why we made the decision that we would move ... for a new trial," she said at a news conference.

    Behenna took office in January. She stepped down as executive director of the Innocence Project in Oklahoma last year to campaign.

    The customer, Belinda Sue Brown, continues to say that she identified the correct man. She was shot in the head during the robbery.

    "This is not a case where there is new evidence of factual innocence," Behenna said. "There's not new DNA evidence. There's not a witness that has recanted their testimony."

    Killed during the robbery was Carolyn Sue Rogers. Also convicted of first-degree murder was Don Roberts.

    Jurors chose death as punishment for both men at their trial. Their sentences were modified to life in prison in 1977 because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on capital punishment.

    Roberts was released on parole in 2008. He is 70.

    Simmons testified in his own defense at trial, telling jurors he moved to Oklahoma for the first time in January 1975 to look for work.

    He is now 70. He was 22 when he was convicted of murder at his 1975 trial. He was convicted at a trial in Okfuskee County in 1986 of escape.

    His attorney, Joe Norwood of Tulsa, praised the DA for asking for a new trial.

    "A lot of credit should go to her for doing what many prosecutors before would not," he said.

    Norwood said there is no doubt in his mind that Simmons is an innocent man.

    "There are around 10 witnesses who will say definitively Glynn Simmons was in Harvey, Louisiana, on Dec. 30, 1974," he said.

    He said the withheld police report shows the eyewitness identified two other people during the lineup, not Simmons.

    "It was hard for the defense counsel back then to impeach her credibility because they did not have the evidence," Norwood said.

    An Oklahoma City federal judge in 1998 rejected Simmons' complaints about the undisclosed police report on the lineup. The district attorney in 1975 was Curtis Harris, who died of a heart attack a year later.

    https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...e/70115535007/
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
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    Man imprisoned nearly 50 years for deadly Oklahoma robbery is freed after a judge orders new trial

    By Associated Press

    OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man who had been imprisoned in Oklahoma for almost 50 years for a fatal shooting that he has long claimed he didn’t commit has been freed from custody after a judge ordered a new trial.

    Glynn Ray Simmons had been convicted in the 1974 death during a robbery of Carolyn Sue Rogers, a liquor store clerk in Edmond, located just north of Oklahoma City.

    A woman who was shot and injured during the robbery later picked Simmons out of a lineup. But Simmons, from Louisiana, has repeatedly said he wasn’t in Oklahoma but in his home state at the time of the robbery.

    The Oklahoma County District Attorney‘s office had asked District Judge Amy Palumbo to vacate the sentence and set a date for a new trial, saying prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence in the case, including a police report that showed an eyewitness might have identified other suspects in the case and not Simmons and a co-defendant, Don Roberts.

    During a court hearing on Wednesday, Palumbo vacated Simmons’ murder conviction and life sentence, saying he was entitled to relief “for the state’s failure to disclose police department reports which denied Glynn Simmons a fair trial.”

    Simmons was 22 when he was convicted. He is now 70 years old.

    “I’m free now,” Simmons told KFOR as he walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday. “It’s indescribable. I did 48 years. Justice is out the window. This is mercy. I’m happy. I’m ready to move on and make something of my life.”

    A jury had originally sentenced Simmons and Roberts to death. Their sentences were reduced to life in prison in 1977 after U.S. Supreme Court rulings related to capital punishment.

    Roberts was released on parole in 2008 and testified at an April hearing that he was innocent, the Oklahoman reported.

    Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said the next step will be to evaluate the case for retrial, which was set for Oct. 23.

    https://apnews.com/article/simmons-o...dec50853f7e0f8

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    Man formerly on death row gets murder case dismissed after 48 years

    By Kiara Alfonseca
    abcnews.go.com

    After 48 years, a man who says he was wrongfully convicted of murder has officially had his case dismissed.

    Glynn Simmons was 22 when he was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1974 death of Carolyn Sue Rogers at a local liquor store. Simmons is now 70.

    He received a death penalty sentence in 1975. However, his sentence was modified to life in prison in 1977 following a U.S. Supreme Court decision, according to Oklahoma County District Court Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna.

    In April, Behenna requested that Simmons’ conviction be vacated and retried after a review of the case found that “a lineup and certain police reports that were available at the time were not turned over to the defense.”

    Behenna argued that the circumstances “cast a shadow over his right to a fair trial.”

    In July, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Amy Palumbo vacated Simmons’ conviction and set the case for a new trial, allowing Simmons to be released for the first time in 48 years.

    Behenna then asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that the state will not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Simmons was responsible for the death.

    Behenna said in a statement that this is because there is no longer physical evidence; the original investigators and detectives in the case are not available or deceased; and the surviving victims are not available or deceased.

    Behenna added the defense alleges that their alternate suspect was identified in one of the lineups.

    Palumbo ruled Tuesday that the case will be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be retried.

    “I plan to use my remaining time to help others who are still stuck where I was,” said Simmons in an online post. “We need to fix this system so that what happened to me will never happen to anyone else, ever again!”

    He said he is currently undergoing chemotherapy for liver cancer.

    https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/man-de...y?id=103342384
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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