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Man Declared Innocent After Spending 48 Years In Prison

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A 71-year-old man has been declared innocent in the US state of Oklahoma after spending nearly 50 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Glynn Simmons, who is Black, served more time behind bars before being exonerated than any other inmate in US history, according to The National Registry of Exonerations.

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Simmons was released in July after serving a total of 48 years, one month and 18 days in prison.

Simmons and another man, Don Roberts, were sentenced to death in 1975 for the murder the previous year of a 30-year-old liquor store clerk during a robbery in Edmond, Oklahoma.

READ ALSO: In 84 Years Memorial Of Capt. Ededuna Obaseki

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Their sentences were later commuted to life in prison.

Simmons and Roberts were convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of a teenage customer who was shot in the head during the robbery but survived.

She picked them out of a police lineup but a subsequent investigation cast significant doubt on the reliability of her identifications.

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Both men had also claimed at trial that they were not even in Oklahoma at the time of the murder.

US District Court Judge Amy Palumbo threw out Simmons’ conviction in July and declared him innocent at a hearing in Oklahoma County District Court on Tuesday.

READ ALSO: Supreme Court To Hear Kano Governorship Appeal On Thursday

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“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.”

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

Simmons may now be eligible for compensation.

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

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Judge In Maradona Negligence Case Resigns Amid Scandal

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The Argentine judge who caused the collapse of a trial over the 2020 death of football legend Diego Maradona has resigned, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Julieta Makintach’s involvement in a clandestine documentary about the trial of Maradona’s medical team led to the proceedings being scrapped in May after two months of hearings.

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No date has yet been set for a new trial.

READ ALSO:Seven Healthcare Workers Face Jail In Maradona Death Trial

I have the honor of addressing you in my capacity as judge (…)in order to submit my resignation from my position,” Makintach wrote in a letter to the governor of Buenos Aires that was shared by her lawyer.

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Makintach was facing impeachment proceedings over her participation in the documentary about the case against seven medical staff accused of manslaughter over Maradona’s death.

Maradona — considered one of the world’s greatest ever players — died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery.

READ ALSO:Qatar 2022: Diego Maradona Doing Two Things For Argentina From Above – Messi

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He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs — two weeks after going under the knife.

Prosecutor say the conditions of his home convalescence were grossly negligent.

Makintach was one of three judges hearing the case.

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Netanyahu Vows To Thwart ‘Any Attempt’ By Iran To Rebuild Nuclear Programme

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to crush any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme in a national address to the country after 12 days of war.

Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said after a ceasefire put a halt to airstrikes by the two countries against each other.

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READ ALSO: Netanyahu Hails ‘Historic Victory’ In Iran War

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

 

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Netanyahu Hails ‘Historic Victory’ In Iran War

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in his country’s 12-day war against Iran and vowed to prevent Tehran rebuilding its nuclear facilities.

“We have achieved a historic victory,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation after the start of a ceasefire agreed to by both countries.

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Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he told viewers in the near-10-minute speech.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

READ ALSO:Netanyahu Says Israel’s Strikes On Iran Have ‘Clear Support’ Of Trump

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The head of Israel’s military Eyal Zamir said earlier on Tuesday that its strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “by years” and the campaign against the country was now “entering a new phase”.

Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States as the ceasefire took hold.

But Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

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Israel’s government said in a statement earlier Tuesday that it had removed the “dual existential threat” of Iran’s nuclear programme and missiles during its strikes.

READ ALSO:Israel’s Netanyahu Says Iran Will ‘Pay Heavy Price’ After Hospital Hit

Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s attack on Iran, named “Operation Rising Lion”, would be “recorded in the annals of Israel’s wars, and will be studied by armies all over the world.”

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It included repeated strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile sites, assassinations of military and domestic security service leaders, as well as the bombing of state media and Evin prison in Tehran.

After the United States joined in the conflict with strikes on Sunday, President Donald Trump said his forces had “totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites.

Analysts said, however, that it remained unclear whether the strikes had put the nuclear threat out of reach, with the possibility that Iran had moved its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium away from the targeted sites.

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Tehran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.

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