USA: Court acquits 71-year-old man after 48 years in prison for murder he did not commit

A 71-year-old man was acquitted on Tuesday by a jury in the US state of Oklahoma after spending nearly half a century behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

Glenn Simmons, an African-American, is now the person who spent the longest time in prison before being exonerated in US history, according to the national registry of exonerations.

He and another man, Don Roberts, were sentenced to death in 1975 for killing a 30-year-old winery employee during a robbery in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Their sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

The conviction of the two men was based on the testimony of a female customer of the store, a teenage girl who was shot in the head during the robbery but survived.

The teenager identified them among other suspects presented to her by police, but a subsequent investigation questioned the reliability of the identification.

During the original trial, the defendants testified that they were not even in Oklahoma on the day of the murder.

Glenn Simmons was released from prison in July after 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison.

He was found not guilty on Tuesday by a jury in Oklahoma, which overturned his conviction.

"This is a day we've been waiting for a long, long time," Mr Simmons summed up, speaking to the press. "We can say justice was served today — finally."

The other man convicted in that case, Don Roberts, was released in 2008, according to the national registry of acquittals.

Glenn Simmons may now be entitled to compensation. "What's done is done, but there must be accountability" and restitution, he ruled.

Source: Protothema.gr