PRESS RELEASE: Norwood.Law client could become America’s longest-serving wrongfully convicted man after judge grants new trial

/ Glynn Simmons, In the News

Joseph M. Norwood

1717 S. Cheyenne Ave.

Tulsa, OK 74119

norwoodlegal.com/contact

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7/19/2023

PRESS RELEASE: Norwood.Law client could become

America’s longest-serving wrongfully convicted man

after judge grants new trial 

A client of Norwood.Law in Tulsa is one step closer to becoming the longest-serving wrongfully convicted man in recorded U.S. history having so far spent almost half-a-century behind bars. 

Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo has ordered a new trial and new jury to reevaluate a 1974 robbery and murder that took place in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond. 

Glynn Ray Simmons was first convicted 48 years ago of shooting a liquor-store clerk to death during the robbery and shooting a second woman in the head who survived. Prosecutors built their case against Simmons and a co-defendant almost entirely around the testimony of the survivor who by her own account only glimpsed at the perpetrators for a few seconds. 

Informing Judge Palumbo’s decision was an acknowledgment earlier this year by prosecutors at the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office that Simmons’s 1975 trial was conducted unfairly. They now admit that critical police records in the case were wrongly withheld from Simmons for 20 years. Those records contained damning information about suspect lineups from the 1975 police investigation and raised doubts about who the star witness in the case identified as the perpetrators.

The attorney for Simmons, Joseph M. Norwood, practices personal injury, family, civil rights, and criminal-defense law from his office in Tulsa. If you or someone you know needs an attorney who will fight tirelessly for his clients, call Norwood.Law for a free consultation at 918-582-6464. We’ll deliver the same level of skill and commitment to you and your interests that we did to the fight for Glynn Simmons.

The new trial is expected to take place begin on October 23 and last for about one week. But Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna has said she is not certain whether her office will press ahead with the case. If the jury votes in his favor, Simmons could enter the National Registry of Exonerations having served the longest-recorded sentence for a wrongful conviction in the United States. 

Two decades after Simmons was convicted, one prosecutor responsible for sending him to prison had a change of heart and confessed to being “troubled” by the thinness of the evidence in the case. A second prosecutor admitted that attitudes toward the reliability of eyewitness testimony had shifted since the 1975 trial.  

Glynn Simmons first began corresponding with Norwood.Law after learning about how we had helped free another wrongfully convicted Tulsa man in 2019 named Corey Atchison. Prosecutors presented no physical evidence in either case and instead relied on eyewitnesses.

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About Norwood.Law 

Joseph Norwood is a trial-and-litigation lawyer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who has 20 years of experience practicing business, personal injury, family, civil rights, and criminal-defense law. Owing to numerous high-profile and impactful cases Joe has successfully litigated, he has earned a reputation as a go-to lawyer when results are what matter most. He has secured multiple appellate victories for his clients and jury-tried and bench-tried criminal and civil cases in local, state, and federal courts in Oklahoma. If you or someone you know needs an attorney who will fight tirelessly for his clients, call Norwood.Law for a free consultation at 918-582-6464. We’ll deliver the same level of skill and commitment to your case that we did to the fight for Glynn Simmons. 

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