0:02

On the night of December thirtieth, nineteen seventy

0:05

four, two armed men entered a liquor

0:07

store on the outskirts of Oklahoma City.

0:10

They ordered one clerk to empty the cash

0:12

register and fatally shot the other one

0:14

in the head. As the surviving

0:16

clerk nervously fumbled the cash, one of

0:18

the assailants shot eighteen year old Belinda

0:20

Brown in the head as well, but miraculously

0:23

the girl survived, and she described her

0:25

shooters as black men over six

0:27

feet tall and two hundred pounds. No

0:30

identifications were made until five weeks

0:32

later, when two young men, Glenn

0:34

Simmons and Don Roberts, took part in a

0:36

lineup. Even though both young

0:39

men fell well shy of the described height

0:41

and weight, Belinda Brown's ID was enough

0:43

to convince a jury, and in nineteen

0:45

seventy five murder in Oklahoma

0:48

carried an automatic sentence of death.

0:51

But this is wrongful conviction.

1:04

Welcome back to wrongful Conviction, where we're covering

1:06

a robbery homicide out of Edmond, Oklahoma

1:08

that took place while our guest of honor, Glenn Simmons,

1:11

lived hundreds of miles away, just

1:13

outside of New Orleans. But before

1:16

we try to make sense of all that. I'd like to introduce his attorney,

1:18

Joe Norwood. Joe, welcome to the show.

1:21

Thank you, and thank you for helping

1:23

win Glenn's release after more than forty

1:26

eight years, one of the longest

1:28

terms of any previous

1:31

guests or anybody in the long

1:33

and terrible history of bromful convictions

1:35

in this country. I think Tyrone Clark

1:38

is the only other innocent person that we know of

1:40

who has served as longer longer, and I hope

1:42

no one else ever comes close. So

1:45

Glenn Simmons, welcome, Thank you.

1:47

Now, this happened on the outskirts of Oklahoma

1:50

City, in the town called edmund same as

1:52

Julius Jones in nineteen ninety nine, by the way, and

1:54

we'll have his story lengked in the episode description

1:56

as we continue to seek justice.

1:58

There everyone in Oklahoma's whare.

2:00

Of that case.

2:01

But the crime in Glenn's story took

2:03

place twenty five years earlier, way

2:05

back in nineteen seventy four.

2:07

When Glenn's case happened, Edmunds

2:09

was a sundown community sundown, meaning

2:12

if you're black, you better get

2:14

out before sundown and most preferably

2:17

not even show up there. It has changed

2:19

dramatically since then into

2:23

fourth largest, one of the wealthiest cities in Oklahoma

2:25

now.

2:26

But back in seventy four when the crime in question

2:28

happened, Glenn hadn't even arrived

2:31

in this sundown town yet. He

2:33

was still living and

2:35

was actually in Harvey, Louisiana,

2:38

where he had been born back in nineteen fifty

2:40

three.

2:41

One year before Brown Versus Education

2:43

desegregation of the schools. However,

2:46

schools wasn't really desegregated

2:48

into nineteen sixty eight. In a town where

2:50

I grew up at, you know, Harvard Luais

2:52

down It's on the west bank of the Mississippi

2:54

River, New Orleans.

2:55

Grew up in a very.

2:56

Large family, nine lords and four girls,

2:58

went to all black school in the neighborhood.

3:01

Pretty good childhood, not a whole bunch of drama

3:03

now.

3:04

The crime in question occurred during that sleepy

3:06

week between Christmas and New Year's in nineteen seventy

3:08

four. Glenn had just turned twenty

3:10

one years old, and his aunt, Dorothy, who

3:13

lived Edmond, Oklahoma, was

3:15

back in Harvey for the holidays.

3:17

Anti Dart did she would come for Christmas

3:20

In New Year's we had this tradition

3:23

what we called the Turkey Bowl, and every New Year's Eve

3:25

we would go to this high school and neighborhood

3:28

guys would gather around and pick teams to play

3:30

ball.

3:30

And we did it that year and thought.

3:32

I was a little sharp, little pool player at

3:34

the time, so I hung out in the pool hall a lot, and we

3:36

had some pool tournaments that weekend also. And

3:39

this one particular time Anti Dart

3:41

did she came, I decided to go back with

3:43

her jo Oklahoma, which was in January

3:46

nineteen seventy five.

3:47

I wasn't intending to stay. I was just coming

3:49

to visit. Well.

3:50

I found me a job within a few days, and

3:52

I liked the job, so I decided to steal a little

3:54

while longer.

3:55

However, before Glenn even arrived

3:57

in Edmond, Oklahoma, a robbery and murder

4:00

had occurred at a liquor store. On December

4:02

thirtieth, nineteen seventy four.

4:05

Around nine thirty pm. Two perpetrators

4:08

come into the Edmund liquor store and

4:10

hold it up demand the cash One

4:13

of the cashiers hands it over and

4:15

they shoot the other one in the head, who falls

4:17

dead. As the cashier

4:20

that was still alive was handing over the cash

4:22

and eighteen year old young lady walks in

4:24

and as soon as she walks past the two perpetrators,

4:27

they shoot her in the back of the head. They grab

4:29

the cash and run off.

4:31

The eighteen year old customer, Belinda Brown,

4:33

ended up surviving, while thirty year old

4:35

Carolyn Sue Rogers died at the scene.

4:38

The surviving cashier was named Norma

4:40

Hankins.

4:41

Her initial statement to the police was, I was

4:43

busy looking at that gun. I don't know

4:45

that I'll be able to give a good accurate

4:47

description. That is what she testified to

4:49

at the preliminary hearing, and that's what she

4:52

testified to at the jury trial.

4:53

As the police canvassed the area, a group

4:56

of boys allegedly saw the getaway,

4:58

but didn't have anything useful for the police until

5:00

many weeks later. Meanwhile, the

5:02

eighteen year old customer, Belinda Brown,

5:04

who had been shot in the head, was in critical

5:07

condition.

5:07

She was in the hospital for about a week. She

5:10

had surgery, the bullet was removed

5:13

and she been it up surviving. Not

5:15

but a day or two after she got out of

5:17

the hospital, she was interviewed by the police

5:20

and from the police report quote

5:22

unquote, if she thought about it anymore,

5:24

it would get all jumbled up in her

5:27

mind.

5:27

From what we understand, she wanted to give them

5:30

any information she had as soon as possible.

5:32

She described the assailants as two black men, a

5:34

little over six feet tall and two hundred pounds.

5:36

She was shown several lineups and initially

5:39

only made partial identifications,

5:41

like maybe the eyes of someone she viewed

5:43

were similar to the assailants, but no

5:45

concrete ideas. At this point,

5:48

the investigation began to struggle.

5:50

When I got to Oklahoma, this Ed Meligosto

5:52

murder had been going unsolved,

5:54

and every day there was an article about

5:57

the inadequacies of the police department, how

5:59

they couldn't sell of the crime, and it was coming to

6:01

a date, and it was on the whole lot of pressure to solve

6:03

those crimes.

6:04

And I just helped to walk into it, you know, right

6:06

into it.

6:07

During what was supposed to be just an extended

6:10

visit with his aunt, Glynn attended a small

6:12

get together at a relative's home on the night of February

6:14

third into the fourth, when another robbery

6:17

homicide occurred in Oklahoma City, and

6:19

by the fifth police had two suspects

6:21

in custody Leonard and Delbert

6:23

Patterson, who had been at the same party

6:26

as Glenn.

6:27

They was at the port that night and they left him with

6:29

did something. They come back half an hour later kept

6:31

all parted. So the next day when they get

6:33

arrested on the murder, the accent was

6:35

they gave oulibi that they was at the port and

6:38

who all was at the party, and they

6:40

started arresting people as material witnesses and

6:42

stuff like that.

6:44

In order to hold some of these material

6:46

witnesses, the police, with no

6:48

probable cause to do so, charged

6:50

some of the people from the party as suspects

6:52

in random open cases.

6:55

They arrested me on the Bogies robbery

6:57

case, which was dismissed right there on.

6:59

The woman who got robbed came to

7:01

the station and said, no, I ain't never seen

7:04

that guy before.

7:05

Yeah, it's something They threw on him to make

7:07

sure they could hold him.

7:08

At some point during this morass where

7:10

the police had all these young folks from the

7:12

party still in custody, Leonard and

7:14

Delbert Patterson, both of whom were about six

7:17

to two and a little over two hundred pounds, They eventually

7:19

confessed to the February robbery homicide

7:21

in Oklahoma City, but the Edmund liquor

7:24

store robbery homicide in December remained

7:26

an open case.

7:28

I take this out if you look at the police report.

7:30

On February the fifth, February to six officers

7:32

show over at the Oklahoma Police

7:34

Department. Contacted Officer Garrett at

7:36

the Edmund Police Department and he told him, he said,

7:39

we got two suspects in custody fit

7:42

the description of the Edmund liquor store murder,

7:44

and you need to come down and conduct an ID

7:46

right now. I don't see who these suspects

7:48

are, but they say they fitted the description

7:51

to composite that Belinda Brown gave him, saying

7:53

they were six feet two hundred sub pound right, totally

7:55

different from my description. I was like

7:57

one hundred and fifty pounds five eight.

8:00

But I was actually to participate in the lineup.

8:02

I didn't know I had the right to refuse or a right

8:04

to a lawyer went in, got in the lineup, and

8:06

was told that I was picked out

8:08

the lineup. And so Linda Brown, she was so

8:11

sure she came to detect the house later on

8:13

that night and told him say, the more I think about

8:15

it, the more positive, I am that it was

8:17

number six. They asked us, way, can you come

8:19

up tomorrow and make another idea. She came back

8:21

the next.

8:22

Day to say I picked the sam to I picked the day before.

8:24

Belinda Brown was very confident

8:26

in her choice of position six in the first

8:29

lineup, but only became more confident

8:31

in her second choice the following day. And

8:34

on February eighth, nineteen seventy five,

8:36

both Glenn Simmons and another young

8:38

man from the party, Don Roberts, were charged

8:40

with capital murder. With no

8:42

bail available, they awaited trial from

8:44

jail and Glenn hired private counsel.

8:47

He was a friend of my aunt's, Henry

8:49

Floyd.

8:50

I think I gave him like twenty two hundred dollars,

8:52

which was a lot of money at that time. He

8:54

didn't do nothing either, found no pre trial

8:56

motions or nothing in.

8:57

The case, and perhaps he felt confident

9:00

considering the glaring difference between Glenn

9:02

and Don smaller statures and the over

9:04

six feet tall, two hundred pounds assailants,

9:06

a discrepancy that seemed to strike a chord

9:09

with the Linda Brown at the preliminary hearing.

9:11

When she comes to preliminary three or four weeks

9:13

later, I'm sitting there next to Don Robbins

9:16

in the prison uniform. It written all

9:18

over face. I'm confused, she confused all

9:20

the way. Every time she.

9:21

Look at me and I'm looking at her. You got the wrong one,

9:23

you know, That's what I'm saying, you know.

9:24

And she gets on the stand and she does identify

9:27

them, but it's not a real

9:30

confident ID.

9:32

She said, well, he looked at taller, then

9:34

he looked at heavier, but he had a beard.

9:36

He didn't have a beard.

9:37

And she gets impeached.

9:38

Not only was the defense attacking the

9:40

credibility of the ID, but then, in

9:43

trusting the lineup report he had received

9:45

from police, Oklahoma County Assistant

9:47

Prosecutor Bob Mildfeld implied

9:50

that perhaps, after all that she'd been through,

9:52

maybe Belinda Brown had just gotten a little

9:55

confused about who she had id'd.

9:57

When they kept trying to make it look like she was crazy.

10:00

She was injured when she got shot in the head. She couldn't

10:02

be sure.

10:02

She got real defined was eighteen years

10:04

old, and they're trying to tell it. Were you crazy? You don't

10:06

know?

10:06

And she knew she had made suits. She got the right

10:09

one so she got real defined. She put

10:11

up back up, and wouldn't never back down until this

10:13

day.

10:14

So the adversity only served to solidify

10:17

the ID in Belinda Brown's mind.

10:19

Meanwhile, one of the teenage boys who

10:21

were interviewed back in December of seventy four was

10:24

now willing to say that he recognized Don

10:26

Roberts from a car that had passed by

10:28

the liquor store that night, and Glenn and Don

10:30

were taking the trial in June of seventy five,

10:32

where the defense strategy focused on impeaching

10:34

Belinda Brown, who is now even

10:37

more confident in her ID.

10:39

And it had us to stand next to each other. She was

10:41

five eight, I was five eighting.

10:43

She said, well, you lucky taller than him, and she said,

10:45

well, he might have had on stack your shoes. She

10:47

was defined because she knows she picked

10:50

this and a winter. Well I could have got to this defense

10:52

statement. Oh Wilders dreams and mob

10:54

fails Wilder's dream.

10:55

Meanwhile, six alibi witnesses made

10:57

the trip from Harvey, Louisiana to testify

10:59

it by the pool tournament on December thirtieth

11:01

and the Turkey Bowl the following day, which

11:04

made it impossible for Glenn to have been an

11:06

edmund to commit this crime. No, thanks

11:08

to his attorney, Henry Floyd, though.

11:10

No, we put that together, My family put

11:12

that together.

11:14

What he did was so he went to the court and

11:16

solicited money for travel expenses

11:19

and lodgsing and stuff, and put that money

11:21

in his pocket and the people had to find their own way

11:24

to get here.

11:24

Six of them witness. He didn't even call them. All he

11:26

said would be redundant, so he didn't even bring

11:29

all the witness up.

11:30

But the police never did investigate none

11:32

of the alibi witness and stuff that I gave

11:34

him. You gotta report say anything with the Dallas

11:36

and looked at Don's He had gave alibi

11:39

that he was in Dallas, and the detectives went

11:41

to Dallas and checked out the alibi and come

11:43

back inconclusively. They couldn't prove that he was

11:45

in there, but they decided to say they couldn't prove

11:47

that he was.

11:48

You know, with Glenn and Don's alibi

11:50

defenses, coupled with the impeaching evidence against

11:52

Belinda Brown, reasonable doubt had certainly

11:55

been raised and there was at least some hope

11:57

for a quittal.

11:58

I thought I was going to walk up out of there. No,

12:01

I couldn't see no conviction. What's nothing

12:03

to convict me on.

12:05

It?

12:06

Then?

12:06

Last two and a half days. Just

12:09

send us a debt in the elected chair. Yeah,

12:13

I don't have to say any more about that. You know,

12:16

some wounds you let stay closed.

12:18

Right,

12:31

Wrongful conviction has always given voice

12:33

to innocent people in prison.

12:35

Now we're expanding that voice to you.

12:38

Call us at eight three three two

12:40

O seven four six sixty six and

12:42

leave us a message. Tell us how these powerful,

12:45

often tragic stories make you feel

12:47

outraged, inspired, motivated.

12:50

We want to know. We may even include

12:52

your story in a future episode. Call

12:54

us a three three two O seven

12:57

four six sixty.

12:57

Six seventy

13:06

five day.

13:06

What they call a mandatory dead penoty if

13:09

they find you guilty of one two three

13:11

elements of murder, like you kill the police,

13:14

or he kills about it being the commission of a

13:16

feling, he kills about it at a certain

13:18

age, or something like that. That he was

13:20

automatically given the dead penet and the jury

13:22

had no discretion and to rendering

13:24

up the punishment because it was set by legislative

13:27

back it was automatic dead penalty.

13:29

That's one of the reason why it was abolish.

13:32

In June of nineteen seventy two, the Supreme

13:34

Court ruled in Furman versus Georgia that

13:36

the death penalty violated the Eighth and Fourteenth

13:39

Amendments under certain circumstances, placing

13:41

a four year moratorium on executions

13:44

until more challenges would bring about guidance

13:46

on the matter.

13:47

US Supreme Court stayed the death

13:49

penalty across the country, saying, the

13:51

death penalties being administered arbitrarily

13:54

and capriciously, and so Oklahoma

13:57

and several other states response to that was,

13:59

Okay, you don't think that we administered the

14:01

death penalty evenly and equally,

14:04

great, Well, we're just going to administer

14:06

it to everyone that is convicted

14:08

of first degree murder. And so that's

14:11

the statute that Glenn was convicted

14:13

under. Now, that statute was appealed,

14:15

and the Supreme Court came back and rendered

14:17

a decision on a group of statutes,

14:20

including Oklahoma's, saying basically,

14:23

no, guys, we didn't mean to

14:25

kill everyone. We meant

14:29

that you got to make it somewhat fair.

14:32

In nineteen seventy six, the Supreme Court confirmed

14:34

that capital punishment was still legal in the United

14:37

states, but under limited circumstances,

14:39

so the interim statutes in states like

14:41

Oklahoma were nullified, and in their

14:43

place came the aggravating and mitigating

14:46

processes that we see used today,

14:48

in which juries have a say in sentencing.

14:50

The Supreme Court ruling played out differently

14:53

in each state, but in Oklahoma, Glenn's

14:55

sentence and all others rendered before nineteen

14:58

seventy six were commuted by the Oklahoma

15:00

Supreme Court to life, with the possibility

15:03

of parole from there. His direct

15:05

appeal failed and financially he was

15:07

unable to mount anything further, which made

15:09

the parole board his only viable avenue

15:11

at the time.

15:12

I stayed in for forty eight years because my innocence

15:15

was my burden, so it was

15:17

more of a luxury to be guilty. Guys

15:19

into guilty please for all kinds of atrocious

15:22

crimes. But they go through the parole board and

15:24

they tell them I feel regret and I feel remorse,

15:27

I take responsibility for my crime, and they

15:29

give them a parole, let them go six to

15:31

eighteen months, they'd be back in again.

15:33

They let them go again.

15:34

But I went up for thirty something years saying that I'm

15:37

innocent and it was denied because I didn't show

15:39

remorse. You know, I take responsibility,

15:41

notwithstanding the fact that the victim's

15:43

sister wrote them a letter, sent them a video

15:45

deposition telling them, you know, I don't think

15:48

mister Simmons killed my sister. I think my sister

15:50

and mister Simmons victims of the same

15:52

crime.

15:53

In addition to the victim's sister, the prosecuting

15:55

attorney, Bob Mildfeldt, also came

15:57

forward.

15:58

Like ninety three first letter he wrote,

16:00

telling him that he think I was innocent and I didn't get

16:03

a fair trial. I took it to the parole Board

16:05

and they accused me of forging

16:07

the letter and denied me. So at

16:09

that time it was going up annually for the row.

16:12

So the next year I had myfl to write

16:14

the parole board itself, and he

16:16

wrote him and told him, he said, this is one case.

16:18

I'm sure a.

16:18

Week later that the verdict would have been different because

16:21

of all the unasked questions we had. You know, he

16:23

described the description that didn't fit me

16:25

in all of this. It's in letters that he wrote to the parole

16:28

board.

16:28

The exact quote is very powerful when

16:31

talking about Belinda Brown's description of

16:33

the assailant at around six foot two hundred

16:35

pounds quote, a physical

16:37

description greatly different from

16:40

Glenn's stature at the time. The jury

16:42

on that day at that time found him guilty.

16:44

However, quite candidly, it was one of

16:46

the few cases I've been involved in that the

16:48

verdict a week later could easily

16:50

have been different end quote.

16:53

Yet he was denied by the parole board

16:55

again in nineteen eighty six, but Bob

16:58

milefelt the letter was not a dead end. It

17:00

gave Glynn an idea that up until then he

17:02

hadn't had the funds to follow through on.

17:05

In the nineties, Glenn strikes

17:07

up a relationship with a woman on the outside

17:10

and they get married, and she

17:12

dies about six months after

17:15

her and Glenn get married.

17:16

My wife left me some money in an insurance

17:18

policy, and so I took the money and I had a private

17:21

investigator. I gave him a list of what I wanted,

17:23

but he came back with ten times more than I

17:26

had on the list.

17:27

His name is Mike Noble, and Mike

17:30

ended up talking the Edmund City

17:32

Attorney into turning over the entire

17:35

file from Glenn's

17:37

case from seventy four to seventy five.

17:40

If you remember, Belinda Brown seemed confused

17:42

at the preliminary hearing about whether Glenn

17:44

and Don were the men she had identified in the lineup.

17:47

His private investigator turned up the original

17:49

lineup that seemed to have made Bob mildfelt

17:52

so confident in that idea trial.

17:54

From what we can tell, the only

17:56

thing the prosecution had was

17:59

the actual lineup that

18:02

had the names of the people, you

18:04

know, spot one, spot two through

18:07

seven, and it has the

18:09

date February seventh and eighth,

18:12

and so it's not a report, it's just a

18:14

lineup. And then there are stars above

18:17

Glenn and Dawn's names.

18:19

That's it. Then in the file

18:21

from the Edmund City Attorney, that lineup

18:23

sheet was accompanied by the report of who she

18:25

actually chose.

18:26

And so in the report it

18:28

says Blenda Brown subject

18:31

number six confidently

18:34

and she's not so sure about

18:36

subject number blank. And

18:39

then it talks about her coming back the

18:41

next day again affirmatively

18:44

id in subject number six

18:46

and then saying yes, I am now more confident

18:49

that subject number and the report has a

18:51

blank. Is the

18:53

other suspect the actual lineup

18:56

that had the spot one, spot

18:58

two through Glenn

19:00

was two, Don Roberts was four,

19:03

Delbert Patterson was six, Leonard

19:05

Patterson was seven.

19:06

She consistently said, I picked number six.

19:09

You see, she never picked Linson from a line

19:11

up all the way through and all the narratives

19:13

is attacking the witness. Well, my thing

19:15

is give the witness to benefit it out. Because she

19:17

told them whose shadow. She told them exactly who.

19:20

She didn't picked nobody else. She never did pick me.

19:22

She picked Delbert Patterson. And

19:25

then the report says suspect

19:27

number and it has a blank. So we're

19:30

not actually sure who the other

19:33

person was that she

19:35

picked, because this report that was not disclosed

19:38

and discovered twenty years later

19:40

is blank on who it is now, and there's a lot

19:42

of other surrounding evidence

19:44

to make us believe that it was Leonard Patterson.

19:47

Leonard and Delbert were out killing people and robin

19:49

people at this time. They had weapons

19:51

that match the type of caliber that wounded

19:54

Brown and killed Miss Rogers. They

19:56

were suspected of having

19:58

been in the area. The sketch

20:01

of the suspect looks very

20:04

much like Leonard Patterson. Matter

20:06

of fact, I put pictures of Leonard in the

20:08

briefire road along with the

20:10

composite sketch. It's a striking resemblance.

20:14

And as we mentioned, Delbert and Leonard

20:16

Patterson matched Belinda Brown's description

20:18

of her assailants.

20:19

Six two hundred pounds. And where

20:21

this would lead to clearly is

20:23

police conspiracy cover up. There's

20:25

no way I could have got to that defense table without

20:27

the police hiding the reports because witness

20:30

told the mousada.

20:31

And it appears that Bob Mildfeld and everyone

20:33

else, including Belinda Brown, were just led

20:35

to believe that she had chosen Glenn Simmons

20:37

and Don Roberts by the lineup sheet that

20:39

had been marked with stars. It's entirely

20:42

possible that Bob Mildfeld found

20:44

out about the treachery after trial, and

20:46

perhaps that's what compelled him

20:48

to write to the parole board on Glenn's behalf.

20:51

I asked him about it, what happened a week later,

20:53

and I concluded that he didn't never have

20:56

the reports, and after week after the conviction,

20:58

I.

20:59

Checked this out.

21:00

He was an upcoming prosecuting

21:02

attorney, just successfully prosecuted

21:05

two first degree murder case in the high profile

21:07

murder case that was all dissolved. His career

21:09

is supposed to be in skyrocketing at the very least.

21:12

But when I ran into him years later, he was

21:14

a public defendant for the Juvenile Division

21:17

and he stayed there for years and years until

21:19

he retired.

21:20

Perhaps he made that career choice considering

21:22

what he was led to do to not only Glennon

21:25

Donn, but also the victims,

21:27

Carol and Sue Rodgers and Belinda Brown.

21:30

You had the victim pick who

21:32

it was, Delbert and Leonard

21:34

Patterson, who were already in custody

21:37

for doing the exact same shit that

21:39

you're looking for these two suspects

21:42

on, and then you hide that report

21:44

and you pin it on two other guys. Now

21:47

the big question is why.

21:50

My speculation is we got those two

21:52

black guys, let's get a couple

21:54

others.

21:56

And this was done with a crime that carried

21:59

an automatic death sentence.

22:01

There's a name for that attempted

22:04

murder. Nobody didn't

22:06

want to talk about it because it's real explosive,

22:09

but it happened to me, and I'm going to talk about

22:11

it. Not only was it

22:13

attempted murder, it's excessive to murder

22:15

because you assist the perpetrators

22:17

in getting away after she told you it was. It

22:20

wasn't just no mischaracter justice or

22:22

a misidentification, and that

22:24

was deliberate, conscious, and deliberate.

22:28

It wasn't no mistake.

22:43

So Glenn goes and takes the rest

22:45

of his money that he got from his deceased

22:48

wife and pays an attorney

22:50

to take this report back into court. This

22:53

was Glenn's first post conviction or habeas.

22:55

It was a straight Brady claim. Essentially,

22:58

you got to turn over exculpatory defendants.

23:01

But it's a skeleton pleading. He

23:03

doesn't lay out why this report

23:06

is so consequential, and if

23:08

you are going to ask a judge

23:10

to overturn a black man's murder convention,

23:14

you have to come correct

23:17

and throwing something that

23:19

you found that is good evidence,

23:22

exculpatory evidence, onto a

23:24

skeleton pleading that doesn't lay out why

23:26

it's important and how it completely

23:29

takes out the base of the state's

23:31

case where the government and

23:33

judges have no choice.

23:36

That's what you got to do to win these things. You have to

23:39

give the government, prosecutors, judges

23:42

no choice but to see

23:44

innocence and then hope at

23:47

that point that the prosecutor,

23:49

judge, pardoner, and pro board governor

23:51

whoever it is with the authority you're asking

23:53

to make this decision has a conscience

23:56

on him. Well, the lawyer in the

23:58

nineties did not lay it out. He said,

24:00

this is new evidence, this is Brady. You

24:03

got to give us a new trial at least, and

24:05

did not show that

24:07

this report not

24:09

only is Brady, but it proves Glenn

24:12

innocent. And he just didn't lay it out

24:14

correctly. Well, the attorney

24:17

ends up getting shot down and state

24:19

district court takes it to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

24:22

Basically a speed bump on the way

24:24

to federal court goes to federal court

24:26

district court. They don't do anything. Glenn

24:28

runs out of money, the attorneys don't

24:30

even bother trying to do anything in the

24:32

Tenth Circuit.

24:34

Meanwhile, Glenn and Donn had been trying their hands

24:36

at the parole board each year.

24:39

We went up for parole two thousand and

24:41

five and we both got majority

24:43

to the votes from the parole board, but the

24:45

governor turned us down. In Oklahoma,

24:48

even when you get but George is still

24:50

up to the governor, and so he turned us down.

24:52

Stipulations to come back up in three years.

24:54

But by the time we rolled around, I

24:57

had two or three misconducts. They started

24:59

letting sell phones into the penitentiary

25:01

and I had a cell phone, so that

25:04

was on me if you got a write up

25:06

and you can't go off for parole. And so I

25:08

missed it that year and he got out and I

25:10

didn't. After that, politics

25:12

changed and it was hard to get out.

25:14

Glenn faced denials in court and at

25:16

the parole board, even with this report proving

25:19

that he and Don Roberts had not been identified

25:21

by the victim. And since his attorney raised

25:23

the evidence on appeal and was denied, it

25:26

became procedurally defaulted. Eventually,

25:29

it took a convergence of events and people

25:31

to bring about justice in this case. First,

25:34

Joe Norwood's work feeing two other innocent

25:36

men put him on Glenn's radar, while media

25:39

coverage of Glenn's case did the same for Joe.

25:41

The local reporter in Oklahoma City, Ali

25:43

Meyer, did some fantastic reporting

25:46

on Glenn's case. Glenn reached out to me

25:48

and asked me to get into the case. And so I

25:50

read the transcript some of the reports and

25:52

it was clear Glenn was innocent, and at

25:55

that point I knew what I had to do. It was the end

25:57

of twenty nineteen early twenty

25:59

twe I spent two years

26:02

investigating, putting it together, making

26:04

sure we had everything.

26:05

In addition, Glenn's evidence of actual innocence

26:08

could finally be raised again in court, this

26:10

time effectively as a new court ruling

26:12

came to.

26:13

Pass Fortnight versus Crow.

26:15

It's a tenth circuit case. It's

26:17

deal with newly presented evidence. If

26:20

you could make a colorable showing on actual

26:22

innocence, then the jug would drive all

26:24

procedure bars and that you proceed

26:27

if you had newly presented evidence. And

26:29

so what became with a new presentation of

26:31

the evidence instead of attacking the

26:33

witness in corner with the same night, if we

26:35

switched it all the way around.

26:37

Glynn had been battling this case for decades,

26:39

long before I ever came around. He knew all

26:41

this stuff inside and out. And he pointed

26:44

out to me quickly, he's just like listen, Blinda

26:47

Brown was right. She picked the right guys.

26:49

I think that's who did it, and I

26:52

put that in the brief, And so we ended

26:54

up filing Glenn's case in

26:57

mid twenty twenty one and then evidentially

26:59

hearing in being set April

27:01

twenty twenty three, We ended up putting

27:04

fifteen witnesses on a stand. We had an

27:06

expert and eyewitness identification that

27:08

looked over the case and rendered an opinion

27:11

that Blenda Brown's identification

27:13

of Glenn in court is just

27:16

not an identification at all. We

27:18

ended up having total twelve

27:20

alibi witnesses that testified

27:23

that Glenn was in New Orleans at the time. Bob

27:25

Mihlefelt testified that report

27:27

was not in the file, and I acknowledged

27:29

that that report does a lot of damage

27:32

to the state's case. It impeaches

27:34

Blnda Brown's testimony.

27:36

Unfortunately, Bob Milefelt didn't have any

27:38

information as to how or why that report

27:40

was missing from his trial evidence, as well as

27:43

who might have starred Don and Glenn's

27:45

names on the bogus lineup sheet. But fortunately

27:49

all of this was playing out across from the newly

27:51

elected DA in Oklahoma County, Vicky

27:53

Bihenna, who eventually joined their motion

27:55

to vacate, and on July twentieth, twenty

27:57

twenty three, Judge Palumbo vacated a conviction

28:00

and ordered a new trial, and Glenn

28:02

was released on bond for the first time in forty

28:05

eight years, one month, in eighteen

28:07

days.

28:08

That was the moment, That was the first moment I stepped

28:11

out, you know, into freedom,

28:13

when they took the cuffsaus and

28:15

I walked out of the courtroom unescored

28:18

it. That was it,

28:20

but being born again, like the buildable

28:22

card has just been severed. You

28:24

see the picture that I took with my hands

28:26

up in the air. I think it's all my gofund me and

28:28

it's been getting better every day.

28:30

Shortly after this, in September twenty twenty

28:32

three, Victory Bahenna said that they didn't

28:34

have sufficient evidence to move forward with a trial.

28:37

It was still a far cry from being declared innocent.

28:40

Vicky Behenna. She objected to Glenn

28:43

being found actually innocent, So we had to fight

28:45

that out a lot.

28:47

Oh here's what she said.

28:48

One of the winds is still alive and sticking

28:50

to a story. We can't find you guilty,

28:52

but we're gonna let you slide. I'm like bullshit.

28:55

I responded that I'm sticking to a

28:57

story too.

28:58

The victims opinion

29:01

is that she identified the right

29:03

people. Well, you damn

29:05

right, she picked the right people. It was

29:07

Delbra Patterson and Leonard Patterson. And

29:10

miss Beheen is correct. We need

29:12

to respect her id.

29:15

As they damn well should have way back

29:17

in nineteen seventy five.

29:19

So they didn't have nothing to do but to throw it out. It

29:21

was no defense for it.

29:23

In December twenty twenty three, Glenn

29:25

Simmons was declared actually innocent,

29:27

clearing the path for his civil litigation. But

29:30

as listeners of the show know, that can take

29:32

a very long time. In

29:34

addition, as we record this, Glenn

29:36

is undergoing chemotherapy as he battles

29:38

a stage four cancer diagnosis,

29:40

so he needs your support right

29:43

now. As he mentioned, there's

29:45

a GoFundMe. It's going to be linked in the

29:47

episode description, so please give

29:49

what you can. And with that, we're going to

29:51

go to closing arguments. It's where

29:53

first of all, I thank you to amazing

29:56

man Joe Norwood and Glenn Simmons,

29:58

and I'm gonna turn off my microphone,

30:01

kick back in my chair with my headphones on and just

30:03

close my eyes and just listen to anything

30:06

else you have to share with me and our phenomenal

30:08

audience. So Joe, you go first,

30:10

that's our tradition, and then just

30:13

sort of hand the microphone off to Glenn,

30:16

and Glenn will take us off into the sunset.

30:19

You know we've covered it. It's I

30:21

mean, I don't view this as

30:23

a grandiose statement. It's a

30:25

historic case. He's the longest

30:28

serving wrongful conviction in the history

30:30

of the United States. He was sentenced to

30:32

death and eventually found and

30:34

proven by clearing, convincing evidence

30:37

to be innocent. I

30:39

don't have to say any

30:41

more for people to understand

30:46

the gravity and what this case

30:48

says about our system planning.

30:50

And I'm trying to launch my nonprofit

30:53

and nonprofits. Grace Redempson

30:55

is salvation perfect for me to foot

30:57

me integration. So I want to get it

31:00

to this reintegration thing. I got this planned

31:02

by this wrap around support system for guys

31:04

coming out. There's a lot of guys at the same

31:07

position that I was in, even worse

31:09

because they don't have the support that I had, and

31:11

some of them getting ready to be released.

31:13

Now.

31:13

My objective is to curtail

31:15

recidivism because these statistics

31:18

seventy two seventy one, seventy two percent

31:20

of all inmates get out going to return back

31:22

to prison within six to eighteen months,

31:25

and this statistics has stood for

31:27

twenty thirty years for the numbers

31:29

to see that consistent.

31:30

Then somebody delibered it.

31:32

Got their hands on the scale, and all

31:34

I know is prison in and out. Like

31:36

I said, I've seen guys, brilliant guys

31:38

who've got college degrees and all kind

31:41

of skills come back over and over again.

31:43

And I've offered wonder why why they come back?

31:45

Then they don't come back because they wanted to

31:47

come back, because they haven't had time to adjust,

31:49

they haven't had time to make the transition, they

31:51

haven't had that wrap around support

31:54

system. And so this is what my nonprofit

31:56

going on intels and I would like to focus

31:58

on the women. Oklahoma quite

32:01

one of the best kept secret is that. And

32:03

you don't hear politicians, of journalists

32:05

or nobody talking about this. Oklahoma is number

32:07

one and the incarceration of women and

32:09

they have held that do.

32:11

Be just distinction for thirty years or more.

32:13

And I'm not just talking about the number one

32:15

in the United States. I'm talking about the world over

32:18

and nobody mentioned this. It's just like

32:20

you ask the questions, why you

32:22

know it's the women know Kaoma one inclined to be criminals

32:25

or they moved even than anybody else, and.

32:27

Nobody gonna answer that question say yeah.

32:29

And if you can answer that question and say yeah to that

32:31

question, then it's got to be the legislators. We're

32:34

a nation of laws, right, so it's got to

32:36

be the legislators doing this. So, you know,

32:38

we really need to rethink and reconsider

32:41

the way we do this criminal justice and the way we

32:43

apply these things. And so this is where

32:45

I want to dedicate some of my time and effort

32:47

towards because I've had first saying

32:50

experience with it.

32:50

You know, thank

32:57

you for listening to Wrong for Conviction. Listen

33:00

to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts

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one week early by subscribing to Lava

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for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

33:07

I want to thank our production team, Connor Hall

33:09

and Kathleen Fink, as well as my fellow

33:11

executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin

33:13

Wartis, and Jeff Clyburn. The music

33:15

in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR

33:17

nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be

33:19

sure to follow us across all social media

33:22

platforms at Lava for Good and at

33:24

Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow

33:26

me on Instagram at It's Jason Vlahm.

33:28

Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for

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