An Oklahoma city agreed to a $7.15 million settlement with Glynn Simmons, who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly 50 years for a murder he did not commit. The Edmond City Council approved the settlement on Monday after Simmons filed a lawsuit in federal court against the estate of late Edmond detective Sgt. Anthony "Tony" Garrett, retired Oklahoma City detective Claude Shobert, and the investigators' cities, USA Today reports. The settlement resolves only Simmons' claims against Garrett and the city of Edmond. "Mr. Simmons spent a tragic amount of time incarcerated for a crime he did not commit," said Elizabeth Wang of the Loevy & Loevy law firm, lead attorney for Simmons "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 ... looking forward to holding them accountable at trial in March."
Simmons said that while it may appear that the federal case is moving quickly, the timeline did not compare to the 48 years he spent wrongfully incarcerated. Simmons was convicted of the fatal 1974 shooting of clerk Carolyn Sue Rogers during a robbery at a liquor store. His legal team alleges that Garrett and Shobert hid evidence that would have proved Simmons' innocence. Simmons' attorneys also argue that the investigators falsified reports of a witness who had survived the robbery identifying Simmons in a line-up. He spent 48 years in prison until Oklahoma County Judge Amy Palumbo ordered him released in 2023 and determined Simmons to be "actually innocent." Simmons is known to be the longest-served wrongfully convicted man in U.S. history, according to the University of Michigan Law School's National Registry of Exonerations.
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