{"id":13320,"date":"2023-07-19T14:21:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-19T19:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norwoodlegal.com\/?p=13320"},"modified":"2024-10-24T14:24:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T19:24:39","slug":"ok-judge-grants-new-trial-to-norwood-law-client-who-could-become-the-longest-serving-wrongfully-convicted-man-in-recorded-u-s-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norwoodlegal.com\/ok-judge-grants-new-trial-to-norwood-law-client-who-could-become-the-longest-serving-wrongfully-convicted-man-in-recorded-u-s-history\/","title":{"rendered":"OK judge grants new trial to Norwood.Law client who could become the longest-serving wrongfully convicted man in recorded U.S. history"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By G.W. Schulz<\/p>

As the months, years, and decades slipped by without relief from a judge, Glynn Ray Simmons, a client of Norwood.Law based in Tulsa, edged closer to becoming the longest-serving wrongfully convicted man in recorded U.S. history. But that dubious distinction wouldn\u2019t become a reality unless and until a judge or jury exonerated him of murder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Now, with our help, Simmons is one step closer after an Oklahoma district judge chose to grant him a new trial.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Simmons has spent an astonishing 48 years behind bars for a 1974 liquor-store robbery and murder that took place in the suburban town of Edmond near Oklahoma City. With no physical evidence to go on, police and prosecutors built their case against Simmons largely on the questionable testimony of a single eyewitness who was a customer of the liquor store. She was shot but survived. By her own admission, the customer only glanced at Simmons and a co-defendant for a few seconds.<\/span><\/p>

Oklahoma County District Judge Amy Palumbo has called for a new jury to reevaluate the case sometime in the near future. Informing her decision was an acknowledgment earlier this year by prosecutors at the Oklahoma County District Attorney\u2019s Office that Simmons\u2019s 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 <\/span>damning information about suspect lineups from the 1975 police investigation<\/span><\/a> and raised doubts about who the star witness in the case identified as the perpetrators.<\/span><\/p>

A new trial gives Simmons a reason to be optimistic about the future. But we had hoped Judge Palumbo would absolve Simmons of guilt in the case entirely and obviate the need for a new trial by declaring him \u201cactually innocent\u201d of the crime due to \u201cclear and convincing evidence.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

If she had taken that step, Simmons would not only have become eligible for the <\/span>National Registry of Exonerations<\/span><\/a>. At almost half-a-decade behind bars, Simmons could have been entered as the <\/span>longest-serving exoneree in the database<\/span><\/a>. Maintained by the University of Michigan and partner schools, the registry currently contains over 3,300 cases, and together they total nearly 30,000 years served for wrongful convictions.<\/span><\/p>

\"Exon<\/p>

Today, Simmons is 70 years old. He was just 22 when he entered prison. Simmons began corresponding with Norwood.Law after reading about how we helped free another man in 2019. After 28 years in that case, our client, Corey Atchison, was <\/span>let go by Tulsa County District Judge Sharon Holmes<\/span><\/a>. Judge Holmes ruled that Atchison was \u201cactually innocent\u201d in the case and that his treatment had been a \u201cfundamental miscarriage of justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

After then learning about the Glynn Simmons case, Norwood.Law began to study the details contained in court records. We also examined the work of Oklahoma City TV reporter Ali Meyer and her news station, KFOR, who have covered Glynn\u2019s story in-depth since 2003. You can find some of their work on Simmons <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>. Continue reading below.<\/span><\/p>