A man who spent 48 years in prison for a murder he did not commit has been officially exonerated by an Oklahoma judge in the longest-known wrongful sentence in the United States. Glynn Simmons, 70, was released in July after a district court revealed that critical evidence in his case had not been disclosed to his defense attorneys. On Monday, a county district attorney concluded that insufficient evidence existed to justify a new trial.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Judge Amy Palumbo declared Simmons innocent, stating, "This court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offense for which Simmons was convicted, sentenced, and imprisoned was not committed by him." The 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers during a liquor store robbery in an Oklahoma City suburb led to Simmons' conviction at the age of 22, along with his co-defendant Don Roberts. Initially sentenced to death, their punishments were later reduced to life in prison due to U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the death penalty.

Maintaining his innocence throughout, Simmons asserted he was in his home state of Louisiana at the time of the murder. The district court vacated his sentence in July, revealing that prosecutors had failed to provide all evidence to the defense, including the identification of other suspects by a witness. Both Simmons and Roberts were convicted, in part, based on the testimony of a teenager who had been shot in the back of the head. The teenager pointed to several other men during police line-ups and later contradicted some of her own testimony, as reported by the National Registry of Exonerations.

While Roberts was released on parole in 2008, Simmons, battling liver cancer, expressed resilience, stating, "It's a lesson in resilience and tenacity. Don't let nobody tell you that it can't happen, because it really can." Wrongfully convicted individuals in Oklahoma are eligible for compensation up to $175,000. A GoFundMe campaign has raised thousands of dollars to support Simmons' living costs and chemotherapy.