In the US state of Oklahoma, a 71-year-old man was found not guilty after serving nearly 50 years in jail for a murder he did not commit.

According to The National Registry of Exonerations, Black prisoner Glynn Simmons spent the longest period of time behind bars before being declared not guilty of any crime in US history.

Simmons spent 48 years, one month, and eighteen days in prison until being freed in July.

In 1975, Don Roberts and Simmons received death sentences for killing a thirty-year-old liquor store clerk in Edmond, Oklahoma, during a heist the year before.

Sentencing

Afterwards, their sentences were reduced to life in prison.

The testimony of an adolescent customer who was shot in the head during the heist but lived was the only reason Simmons and Roberts were found guilty.

She identified them from a police lineup, but the validity of her identifications was seriously questioned after an inquiry.

During their trial, both men had asserted that they were not in Oklahoma at the time of the murder.

Tuesday at a hearing in Oklahoma County District Court, US District Court Judge Amy Palumbo ruled that Simmons was not guilty of the July conviction and pronounced him innocent.

“This is a day we’ve been waiting on for a long, long time,” Simmons told reporters. “We can say justice was done today, finally.”

Compensation after years in prison

According to The National Registry of Exonerations, Roberts, a co-defendant with Simmons, was released from prison in 2008.

Simmons could now be qualified for compensation.

“What’s been done can’t be undone but there could be accountability,” he said. “That’s what I’m about right now. Accountability.”