Willie Junior Simmons is an Alabama resident sentenced to life without parole for first-degree robbery in 1982 for wrestling a man to the ground to steal his wallet, which contained $9. Simmons, who had three prior nonviolent convictions, was prosecuted as a
habitual offender under Alabama's Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA) and has been imprisoned at
Holman Correctional Facility
William C. Holman Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in Atmore, Alabama. The facility is along Alabama State Highway 21, north of Atmore in southern Alabama.
The facility was originally built to house ...
in
Atmore, Alabama
Atmore is a city in Escambia County, Alabama, United States. It was incorporated in 1907. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 8,391. Atmore is in the planning stages to increase its economic base with additions in its new Rivercane d ...
, since 1982. In the summer of 2021 Willie Simmons was moved to
Fountain Correctional Facility
Fountain Correctional Facility is an Alabama Department of Corrections prison located in Atmore, Alabama. The facility is located along Alabama Highway 21, about north of the Atmore city center.[Atmore, Alabama
Atmore is a city in Escambia County, Alabama, United States. It was incorporated in 1907. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 8,391. Atmore is in the planning stages to increase its economic base with additions in its new Rivercane d ...]
.
Simmons was born in 1957 and grew up poor in
Enterprise, Alabama
Enterprise is a city in the southeastern part of Coffee County and the southwestern part of Dale County in Southeastern Alabama, United States. Its population was 28,711 at the 2020 census. Enterprise is the primary city of the Enterprise micr ...
. After dropping out of high school, he was first arrested for
grand larceny at the age of 17. In 1982, at the age of 25, Simmons wrestled down a man on the street and stole his wallet, containing $9. Simmons was arrested and convicted of first-degree robbery. Because he had three prior convictions, Alabama's HFOA at the time recommended that he be prosecuted as a habitual offender and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of
parole
Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...
.
All of Simmons’ petitions for review and reconsideration of his sentence have been denied.
Simmons' sentence has attracted national attention. Several publications, including ''
Essence'' magazine,
and the ''
Washington Examiner
The ''Washington Examiner'' is an American conservative news outlet which consists principally of an online/digital website with a weekly magazine, based in Washington, D.C. It is owned by MediaDC, a subsidiary of Clarity Media Group, which is ow ...
'', and celebrity activists such as
Kim Kardashian have highlighted his story. Over three million people have signed an online petition on
Change.org
Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...
calling for his release. Citing Simmons' case as "an unjust and expensive failure," the Alabama chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
has called for the Alabama legislature to repeal the HFOA.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Willie
1957 births
Living people
American people convicted of robbery
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Alabama