Malta Targeting Phage Therapy 2024: The next clinical revolution

Meeting Announcement

MITOCHONDRIA-MICROBIOTA TASK FORCE

 

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THE 7TH WORLD CONGRESS ON TARGETING PHAGE THERAPY WILL TAKE PLACE ON JUNE 20-21, 2024 AT CORINTHIA PALACE MALTA.

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CREDIT: TARGETING PHAGE THERAPY 2024

Building on the momentum of the 6th World Congress on Targeting Phage Therapy, that gathered more than 150 attendees from over 30 countries and featured over 71 presentations, the highly anticipated Targeting Phage Therapy 2024 is set to unfold.

Mark Your Agendas for the 7th World Congress on Targeting Phage Therapy

• Date: June 20-21, 2024
• Location: Corinthia Palace, Malta

What to Expect:

1. Cutting-edge insights into phage therapy advancements and its potential to revolutionize medicine.
2. Engaging keynotes and expert panels tackling current challenges head-on.
3. Focused discussions on regulatory frameworks, phage selection, and the critical role of clinical trials.

Gain insights into the direction of Targeting Phage Therapy 2024 by exploring the concluding remarks of 2023.

How to contribute?

We welcome submissions for innovative sessions and talks. If you have groundbreaking insights to share, be part of shaping tomorrow's medical landscape.

 

A Look Back at Targeting Phage Therapy 2023: Award Winners

1. Best Scientific Contribution

Martha Clockie, Editor in Chief of PHAGE Journal, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Topic: Challenges and Opportunities for Bacteriophage Therapy

2. Best Scientific Innovation

Amanda (Curtis) Burkardt, CEO of PHIOGEN, USA

Topic: Creating Patient Ready Products in a Remedy Ready World.

3. Best Short Oral:

Brieuc Van Nieuwenhuyse, UC Louvain, Belgium

Topic: Bacteriophage-Antibiotic Combination to Allow Liver Transplantation

4. Best Poster:

Pantiora Panagiota, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece

Topic: Thermostable Bactericidal Endolysin Discovery

 

Revisit Targeting Phage Therapy 2023: Replay is Available

Explore the Targeting Phage Therapy 2023 replay to preview what's in store for 2024. Whether you missed the event or want to rewatch it, the replay is available. Access 40+ talks and innovations from key industries like Phiogen, Armata Pharmaceuticals, BiomX, Cellexus, and more.

The Abstracts Book is also accessible for additional insights.

Learn more about available materials.

 

Wishing you a joyous holiday season, we anticipate the pleasure of meeting you at Targeting Phage Therapy 2024 in Malta. For more information about the event, please visit our website.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PHAGES

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BIOPHAGES

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PHAGE

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=BACTERIOPHAGE

 

Strong connections found between vaccine hesitancy and support for vaccinating pets

Study findings raise the stakes for public health efforts to improve attitudes about vaccination rates across the board.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Texas A&M University School of Public Health research on attitudes toward pet vaccination and how they may be linked with human vaccine hesitancy was the subject of a new study recently published in the journal Vaccine.

Simon Haeder, Ph.D., associate professor, analyzed data from an August 2023 survey of more than 2,000 dog and more than 1,400 cat owners to measure pet vaccination rates, perceptions of vaccines and support for pet vaccination requirements.

“Decreasing pet vaccination rates pose challenges to society for a number of reasons, including increased incidents of pet disease and death, increases in exposures for humans, the potential for further genetic adaptations of pathogens, as well as detrimental effects on veterinarians,” Haeder said. “Many individuals consider their pets as part of the family and increases in vaccine-preventable diseases may also affect the financial and emotional health of owners.”

The survey first asked respondents whether they owned a dog, a cat or both. Dog and cat owners were then surveyed about their pets’ vaccine status for five diseases each for dogs and cats. These included rabies for dogs and cats, canine parvovirus and canine distemper for dogs, and feline panleukopenia and feline Bordetella for cats. The respondents then responded with levels of support for vaccination requirements for each of the listed diseases. The survey also queried respondents about perceived safety, efficacy and importance of the various vaccines.

In addition to pet vaccine-specific questions, the survey asked respondents about their level of trust in scientists, support for human vaccination mandates for children, political ideology, religiosity, non-veterinary expenses and frequency of exposure of dogs to other dogs outside the household. Lastly, the survey measured perceptions of safety, efficacy and importance of human vaccines.

The survey found that an overwhelming majority of pet owners had vaccinated their dogs and cats against rabies, though cats were vaccinated less often than dogs. Other core vaccines had slightly lower, but still high uptake, while there appeared to be more hesitancy toward non-core vaccines. Core vaccines are generally recommended for all pets regardless of lifestyle.

Further analysis found that perceptions of importance, efficacy and safety of vaccines served as a reasonable predictor for vaccine hesitancy. Additionally, these perceptions show an association with attitudes toward vaccination requirements. Haeder’s analysis also found that pet owners without non-veterinary expenses such as boarding or training fees showed higher levels of vaccine hesitancy. Lastly, pet vaccination behaviors and perceptions appear to be less associated with political ideology than with human vaccines.

The findings of this study show a high level of confidence in vaccine safety, efficacy and importance for humans and pets. Additionally, the analysis found relations between vaccine hesitancy in humans and animals, with support for animal vaccine requirements being strongly associated with similar requirements for humans. This indicates the potential for spillover effects and the importance of further focus on vaccine hesitancy in humans and animals in research and public health efforts in the future.

“Concerns about growing hesitancy remain and should be taken seriously, for both pets and humans, before the United States falls below important thresholds to prevent major outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases,” Haeder said.

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JOURNAL

Vaccine

DOI

10.1016/j.vaccine.2023.10.061 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

 

Scientists develop ‘flying dragon’ robot to fight fires from a distance

Flying firefighter robot can be ready for real-world use in the next decade

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

 

VIDEO: 

A DRAGON FIREFIGHTER'S EYE OF ITS ACTION WHEN EXTINGUISHING A FIRE

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CREDIT: TADOKORO LABORATORY, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY, JAPAN

Imagine a flying dragon that doesn’t spout fire, but instead extinguishes it with blasts of water. Thanks to a team of Japanese researchers, this new kind of beast may soon be recruited to firefighter teams around the world, to help put out fires that are too dangerous for their human teammates to approach.

The blueprint of this novel firefighter robot, called the Dragon Firefighter, has now been published in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. And as it has been published as Open Science, roboticists around the world may freely use the plans to build their own Dragon Firefighters, for the benefit of all.

“We here present a prototype of a four-meter-long, remotely controllable flying firehose robot, engineered to safely and efficiently extinguish fires in buildings by directly approaching the fire sources,” said joint corresponding author Dr Yuichi Ambe, an assistant professor at Osaka University.

A research team from Prof Satoshi Tadokoro's laboratory at Tohoku University began working on similar flying robots in 2016. Since then, 11 researchers and students have contributed to its further development. Prior and during development, they liaised with Japanese firefighters to better understand their needs.

Jet propulsion

The Dragon Firefighter’s firehose is propelled upward (flying at two meters above the ground) by eight controllable jets of water spouting from its center and head. The firehose can change shape and be oriented towards flames, steered by a control unit in a wheeled cart behind. The cart is connected through a supply tube to a fire truck with a water reservoir of 14,000 liters.

The nozzles spout water at a rate of 6.6 liters per second with a pressure of up to one megapascal. The hose’s tip contains a conventional and thermal imaging camera, which help to find the location of the fire.

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire

The Dragon Firefighter received its baptism of fire at the opening ceremony of the World Robot Summit 2020 (WRS2020), held in September 2021 in Fukushima. There, it successfully extinguished [49 min 00 s to 51 min 00 s] the ceremonial flame, consisting of fireballs lit by another robot, at a distance of four meters. Besides detailing its design, the present study also discusses lessons learned during this first demonstration of the Dragon’s abilities, as well as specifying further improvements made since.

Dr Yu Yamauchi, an assistant professor at Akita Prefectural University and another corresponding author, said: “Since the demonstration at WRS2020, we have continued to work on improving our Dragon and have learned many new things.”

“For example, we found that the original passive dampening mechanism which counters oscillations of the Dragon Firefighter’s body was impractical: it took too long to prepare for flight. We also found that heat from fires can cause detrimental plastic deformation in outdoor applications of the corrugated tube that holds the water hose and electric cables.”

Other improvements detailed in the study include better waterproofing, a nozzle unit capable of handling a wider range of net forces, and an improved mechanism for channeling water flow. But further developments are in the pipeline.

The Dragon Firefighter in action at the opening ceremony of the World Robot Summit on 08 Oct 2021 in Fukushima, Japan

CREDIT

Tadokoro Laboratory, Tohoku University, Japan

Ready to fly in ten years

“We estimate that it will take approximately 10 more years to deploy our robot in real-world firefighting scenarios,” said Ambe.

“The primary challenge will be to extend its reach to beyond 10 meters. Developing effective firefighting tactics tailored to this robot's unique capabilities will likewise be a critical aspect of further development.”

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

DOI

10.3389/frobt.2023.1273676 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Development of a remotely controllable 4 m long aerial-hose-type firefighting robot

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Dec-2023

 

Fleeing drought, vulnerable populations face flood risk in most African countries

The Horn of Africa and southern Africa saw the most people move during droughts, according to a new continent-scale assessment of settlement locations in Africa

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

 

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DROUGHTS, INCLUDING THE ONGOING SEVERE DROUGHT IN THE HORN OF AFRICA, CAN PROMPT PEOPLE TO RELOCATE CLOSER TO WATER SOURCES OR CITIES. ROUGHLY 80% OF AFRICAN COUNTRIES SAW PEOPLE MOVE TOWARD RIVERS OR TO URBAN AREAS DURING DROUGHT IN RECENT DECADES, A NEW EARTH’S FUTURE STUDY FOUND.

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CREDIT: UNICEF ETHIOPIA

American Geophysical Union
Press Release 23-47
21 December 2023
For Immediate Release

This press release is also available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/fleeing-drought-vulnerable-populations-face-flood-risk-in-most-african-countries

AGU press contact:
Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-5 hours)

Contact information for the researchers:
Serena Ceola, University of Bologna, serena.ceola@unibo.it (GMT+1 hours)

WASHINGTON — In 80% of African countries, moved toward rivers and into cities during or following drought, increasing the number of people living in flood-risk areas in recent decades, according to a new study. This resettlement pattern will likely intensify in coming decades as climate change is expected to make droughts more frequent and severe.

"It's a cycle that exacerbates how many people are negatively impacted by drought, and not only in the ways we might normally expect," said Serena Ceola, a hydrologist at the University of Bologna in Italy who led the study. "As regional climates change and both droughts and floods become bigger problems, more people will struggle to find a safe place to settle. People may move from one drought-affected place to another or move somewhere that just poses different climate risks."

In Somalia, for example more than 3.8 million people have been displaced in part by drought over the last three years. Many of those climate refugees sought shelter near rivers, where farming could resume, but heavy rains and flash floods then displaced more than half a million people.

The study was published in Earth’s Future, which publishes interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants. Prior to this study, research on drought-driven migrations in Africa focused on single countries or specific drought events, limiting scientists’ understanding of how drought influences patterns of human settlements at large scales. The new study is the first to examine changes in human settlement patterns associated with droughts on a continental scale.

“We want the whole society to be aware of just how many people are moving from one climate threat to another,” Ceola said.

Untangling drought

Droughts may push people closer to rivers to continue agricultural activities, and others may adapt by moving to cities, which offer diverse economic opportunities when drought limits agriculture. Scientists have hypothesized that drought can be a main driver of human displacement, but many factors — often inextricably linked to drought itself — can contribute to displacement. Drought can exacerbate conflict, political violence and food and job insecurity, each of which can prompt mass migrations on their own.

The researchers chose to focus on drought alone due to its potential impact on many different factors. They used two indices, EM-DAT and SPEI-12, which respectively reflect socioeconomic and evapotranspiration impacts of drought, to look for droughts in 50 African countries from 1992 to 2013. They included in their analyses the years preceding and following the drought to test for strength of the drought signal and lingering effects of drought on human movement.

To determine whether people moved to rivers, the researchers used satellite-based nighttime light detection to check for either changes in existing settlements’ luminosities or the development of new settlements. They used annual, country-based World Bank census data to track populations in urban centers.

Where does drought drive people?

The study found people moved toward rivers or urban centers in up to 80% of African countries experiencing droughts as indicated by at least one of the two indices used. During drought years identified by at least one of the indices, about half to three-quarters of all studied countries had settlements move closer to rivers, and one-third to half of countries had urban populations grow. The urban-growth signal could have been weaker than river-based migration because people may move to cities for many reasons, Ceola said.

Seventeen countries experienced droughts according to both drought indices during the study period. Up to 65% of those countries saw increased human movement toward rivers during drought years when the pre-drought year was included in the analysis.  

Notably, all countries in southern Africa saw drought-related migration toward rivers based on at least one drought index over the study period. Ceola pointed to Burundi, Guinea Bissau and Namibia as particularly interesting.

The methods have some limitations. Nighttime lights are used as a proxy for human settlements and activities, meaning that the amount of observed light may not reflect the number of people.  Smaller concentrations of lights may not show up, and it might leave out the poorest groups that lack enough lights to appear. Limited data for many regions and populations on the continent mean scientists have to get creative with the sources of information available to prepare people and governments for current and future hazards, Ceola said.

“Policy makers need data and detailed information in order to implement strategic planning, support sustainable development and increase the resilience of people living in vulnerable areas. Likewise, people living in those areas need to be aware of the risks and should have the opportunity to freely move to safer locations,” Ceola said.

#

Notes for journalists:

Neither this paper nor this press release are under embargo. The study is published in Earth’s Future, an open-access journal. View and download a pdf of the study here.

Paper title:

“Drought and human mobility in Africa”

Authors:

• S. Ceola (corresponding author), Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum Universita di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
• J. Mård and G. Di Baldassarre, Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science, Uppsala, Sweden, and Department of Earth Sciences, Air, Water and Landscape science, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

#

AGU (www.agu.org) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, AGU aims to advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

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JOURNAL

Earth s Future

DOI

10.1029/2023EF003510 

ARTICLE TITLE

Drought and human mobility in Africa

 

Where you live matters: A first-of-its-kind study illustrates how racism is interrelated with poor health

Study published in JAMA Network Open points to discrete factors, like voting participation, employment, education, and housing, that may serve as promising targets for interventions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL / MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Where You Live Matters: A First-of-Its-Kind Study Illustrates How Racism Is Interrelated With Poor Health

 

Study published in JAMA Network Open points to discrete factors, like voting participation, employment, education, and housing, that may serve as promising targets for interventions

 

New York, NY (December 21, 2023) – A team of health equity researchers from several institutions has leveraged a complex web of data to test a hypothesis: That structural racism is associated with resources and structures at the neighborhood level that are closely associated with poor health. What they found in an analysis of highly localized, community level data illustrates how racism is deeply interrelated with poor health outcomes.

 

Dinushika Mohottige, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Population Science and Policy, and Medicine (Nephrology), at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, served as first author of a paper published today in the journal JAMA Network Open that details the study.

 

Dr. Mohottige and her senior author and long-time mentor, L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH,
Dean of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, describe in detail how neighborhood prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and hypertension are strongly associated with an increased burden of structural racism indicators.

The research team conducted an observational cross-sectional study in Durham County, North Carolina, using public data sources and deidentified electronic health records to explore how a comprehensive collection of data points associate the presence of structural racism and the neighborhood prevalence of these three chronic health conditions.

 

“It was important to look at these three conditions because they are interconnected and highly associated with heart disease, as well as quality and length of life. Importantly, Black people share a disproportionate burden of these three illnesses,” said Dr. Mohottige, a member of Icahn Mount Sinai’s Institute for Health Equity Research who specializes in kidney health equity and formerly practiced at Duke University with Dr. Boulware. They collaborated with colleagues from Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.

The authors explain that structural racism is defined as how societies foster discrimination through a series of systems that are reinforcing, such as housing, education, and unemployment. “These systems cascade into discriminatory beliefs, values, and the distribution of resources,” says Dr. Boulware.

 

“Dr. Mohottige and I agreed it was important to tap the unusual data assets available in Durham to learn how we can improve the health of communities and individuals by identifying the factors that may affect their health the most. Our goal was to use the data to help us identify possible interventions,” says Dr. Boulware. “Data which measure health outcomes such as kidney disease and diabetes––and which also measure social determinants of health, including information on the built environment and reported neighborhood violence––help us understand how the conditions where people live affect their well-being.  This is especially true for groups that, because of their race or ethnicity, historically experience worse health outcomes when compared to others.”

The result of their work, incorporating thousands of data points related to where people live at the most localized level, says Dr. Boulware, is a first-of-its-kind observational study of associations of structural racism constructs with the health of individuals residing in these neighborhoods. “This study fills an important evidence gap and helps us identify factors which might be targeted to address community health inequities,” says Dr. Mohottige.

 

The researchers studied data of aggregate estimates of prevalence of chronic conditions for each of 150 residential neighborhoods in Durham using the Durham Neighborhood Compass, a unique data asset created by public health officials; a corresponding website, Durham Community Health Indicators Project, provides a user-friendly interface in lay language. 

 

Along with the uniquely detailed and comprehensive Compass data, the researchers pulled data from two main buckets. Through global/composite indicators such as the area deprivation index, they gleaned data revealing the extent of Durham’s stark neighborhood advantage and disadvantage. The discrete indicators they drew upon revealed downstream factors widely thought to represent sociopolitical manifestations of structural racism, including reported crime, evictions, police shootings, and election participation. “Very limited evidence exists to tie together these structural racism constructs with the aggregate health of individuals in a given neighborhood using electronic health data and rigorous assessments of chronic conditions,” says Dr. Mohottige.

 

The team found that:

 

 

• Residential neighborhoods with the highest prevalence of CKD, diabetes, and hypertension, tended to be in neighborhoods with the lowest proportions of White residents, and vice versa.
• Neighborhoods with the highest prevalence of CKD, diabetes, and hypertension tended to be in areas with the lowest income and higher area deprivation. They also had the lowest rates of college education.

 

 

• A greater burden of most discrete indicators of structural racism (examples include reported violent crime, eviction rates, election participation, income, and poverty) was associated with greater neighborhood prevalence of the three diseases.

 

 

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About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 43,000 employees working across eight hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 300 labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it. Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 7,400 primary and specialty care physicians; 13 joint-venture outpatient surgery centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida; and more than 30 affiliated community health centers. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2023-2024.

 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.48914 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Residential Structural Racism and Prevalence of Chronic Health Conditions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Dec-2023

ICYMI

Innocent Black Man Spent 50 Years in Prison, His Compensation Will Annoy The Hell out of You

Kalyn Womack
Thu, December 21, 2023 

Photo: Doug Hoke/The Oklahomian (AP)


A man found guilty in a 1975 murder has spent what the National Registry of Exonerations calls the longest prison sentence on a wrongful conviction. Glynn Simmons, now 71 years old, was named a suspect in an armed robbery that left the clerk of a liquor store in Edmond, Okla. dead, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

A witness to the incident and a patron who was shot but survived both told the police they couldn’t make out who the robbers were. However, somehow Simmons ended up getting swept into a lineup and was charged with both robbery and capital murder.

The ruling makes Simmons eligible for up to $175,000 in compensation from the state for wrongful conviction and opens the door for a federal lawsuit against Oklahoma City and law enforcement involved in Simmons’ arrest and conviction, defense attorney Joe Norwood said Wednesday.

Compensation, though, is likely years away, Norwood said and Simmons is currently living on donations while undergoing treatment for cancer that was detected after his release from prison.

Oklahoma law states that the maximum compensation an exonerated person can receive is $175,000. However, democratic state Rep. Cyndie Munson is behind a bill to change that to $50,000 for every year they spent in prison, per KOCO News. So far, 35 states have implemented this into law.

Until the bill becomes law, Mr. Simmons is living off GoFundMe donations which have now reach up to over $100,000, surpassing his goal of $50,000. Simmons plans to use the funds to put a roof over his head, clothes on his back, food and pay for the medical treatments he needs for liver cancer.

“I plan to use my remaining time to help others who are still stuck where I was. We need to fix this system so that what happened to me will never happen to anyone else, ever again!” Simmons’ donation page reads.



Glynn Simmons declared innocent after serving 48 years in prison – believed to be the longest of any exoneree

Dakin Andone, CNN
Thu, December 21, 2023 

An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday declared innocent a man who spent 48 years in prison for a murder he did not commit – believed to be the longest amount of time served by anyone wrongfully convicted in the United States.

“This is a day we’ve been waiting on for a long, long time. It finally came,” Glynn Simmons, 70, told reporters, according to local news outlet KFOR, after the hearing where an Oklahoma County District Court judge issued an order formally declaring him innocent.

“We can say justice was done today, finally,” he said. “And I’m happy.”

Simmons served 48 years, one month and 18 days following his conviction, earning him a grim distinction: He served the longest wrongful incarceration of any exoneree in the US, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. The average length of a wrongful incarceration is just over nine years, per the registry, which tracks and catalogs exonerations going back to 1989.

“Obviously, we’re just very happy,” Joe Norwood, an attorney for Simmons, told CNN in an interview Thursday. “He felt vindicated to have his name … cleared, that he is innocent and didn’t do this. I’m just real happy that all the work paid off for him.”

Simmons was released on bond in July, when the judge vacated the 1975 judgment and sentence at the request of the Oklahoma County District Attorney, who said in a news release her office found evidence was withheld from Simmons’ defense attorneys — a so-called Brady violation.

In September, District Attorney Vicki Behenna announced she would not seek a retrial, pointing, in part, to a lack of physical evidence.

Simmons’ four-plus decade ordeal officially ended Tuesday with Judge Amy Palumbo’s amended order dismissing the case against him with prejudice.

“This Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offense for which Mr. Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned in the case at hand, including any lesser included offenses, was not committed by Mr. Simmons,” Palumbo stated in the order.

CNN has reached out to the prosecutor for comment on the judge’s declaration of innocence.

Glynn Simmons is seen after Judge Amy Palumbo ruled to approve his "actual innocence" claim during a hearing at the Oklahoma County Courthouse on Tuesday. - Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman/AP

State law limits compensation to $175,000

Simmons was just 22 when he and another man were convicted of murdering Carolyn Sue Rogers during a liquor store robbery on December 30, 1974, according to the district attorney’s office and the National Registry of Exonerations.

The prosecution’s case at trial depended on the testimony of an 18-year-old woman who was shot in the head during the robbery, the Registry said.

Interviewed by police days later, the woman said she couldn’t remember much. But by the time of the trial, the woman said she had identified Simmons and his co-defendant in a lineup, the Registry said. She testified she had identified no other suspects when, in fact, she had identified four other individuals during eight separate lineups, per the Registry.

None of them were Simmons or his co-defendant, Norwood said.

At trial, Simmons testified he wasn’t even in Oklahoma at the time of the robbery: He was in Harvey, Louisiana, he said, playing pool. Several witnesses also testified that they saw him in Harvey that day and the day after, the Registry said.

Ultimately, Simmons and his co-defendant were convicted, the district attorney’s office news release said, and, at first, sentenced to death. Their sentences were later modified to life in prison ultimately as the result of a Supreme Court ruling that found the death penalty was unconstitutional due to arbitrary and uneven application, the Registry said.

Simmons’ co-defendant was released on parole in 2008, the district attorney’s office said.

Through the years, Simmons maintained his innocence, the Registry said. Eventually, a private investigator located a report that the 18-year-old witness had identified other subjects and had considered her identifications overnight before deciding she was confident in them. That report was never shared with Simmons’ defense attorneys at the time of his trial, Norwood and the Registry said.

Now, Simmons and his attorneys are hopeful he can receive some compensation for the time he was wrongfully incarcerated, Norwood told CNN.

Tuesday’s order, he said, allows them to begin the process of seeking that compensation which, in Oklahoma, is capped at $175,000. But there is no guarantee, Norwood added, and it’s possible they will have to fight for it in court.

In the meantime, Simmons is seeking financial help through a GoFundMe – his only source of income after nearly five decades during which he was unable to gain skills he could use to make a living, Norwood said. On top of that, Simmons has been diagnosed with stage four cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.

“Between his medical condition and being 70 years old and (having) the ability to provide for himself robbed from him,” Norwood said, “he needs help from people.”

Oklahoma judge rules Glynn Simmons, man who wrongfully spent nearly 50 years in prison for murder, is innocent

Jessie Christopher Smith and Kayla Jimenez, USA TODAY NETWORK
Wed, December 20, 2023 

OKLAHOMA CITY — An Oklahoma man who served the longest wrongful imprisonment in U.S. history has now been formally declared innocent of a murder he has always maintained he did not commit.

Oklahoma County District Court Judge Amy Palumbo ruled in favor of Glynn Simmons, 71, updating the dismissal of his murder conviction with a declaration of "actual innocence" Tuesday.

Simmons had been convicted of the December 1974 murder of Carolyn Sue Rogers, who died after being shot during an Edmond liquor store robbery. He was imprisoned for more than 48 years and a former death row inmate, according to data from The National Registry of Exonerations.

Palumbo said she had reviewed decades' worth of transcripts, reports, testimony and other evidence while preparing to make her decision before granting Simmons' request.

"This Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the offense for which Mr. Simmons was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned in the case at hand, including any lesser included offenses, was not committed by Mr. Simmons," Palumbo said.

Simmons said Palumbo's ruling Tuesday was a confirmation of something he had known all along for nearly 50 years: that he was an innocent man.

"This is the day we've been waiting on for a long, long time. It finally came," Simmons said. "We can say justice was done today, finally, and I'm happy."
Simmon's attorney: 'He has 50 years stolen from him'

One of Simmons' attorneys, Joe Norwood, said the state of Oklahoma wrongfully took a chunk of his life away.

“He had 50 years stolen from him, the prime of his work life when he could have been getting experiences, developing skills. That was taken from him, by no fault of his own, by other people,” he said.

Kim T. Cole, a civil rights attorney based in Texas, supported Simmons on Tuesday and said the state needed to be held accountable for “robbing” Simmons of five decades of his life.

"It’s too late for justice, at this point, but it’s not too late for retribution," Cole said. "Retribution is due."
Prosecutors, attorneys dispute 'failure of proof' in Simmons case

After 48 years of incarceration, Simmons was released from prison earlier this year when Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna determined that prosecutors had violated Simmons' right to a fair trial by not disclosing a police lineup report to his trial lawyer.

While Behenna had decided not to pursue a retrial and agreed to dismiss Simmons' murder conviction, she had been reluctant to describe Simmons' case as "exonerated." Her office had objected to Simmons' actual innocence claim, saying that the state could not prove Simmons' guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt" and that an eyewitness would not recant her identification of Simmons in 1975.

"The state had a failure of proof — that’s the only reason for the requested dismissal," Behenna wrote in court filings dated Oct. 18. "This simply is not an 'actual innocence' case where DNA was used to exonerate a person; or a conviction was obtained using ‘forensic’ evidence that was later debunked; or where an eyewitness recanted their identification; or where the actual perpetrator of the crime confessed to the commission of the crime and the details of that confession were later corroborated by independent evidence."

Simmons' attorneys, Joe Norwood and John Coyle, said that the lineup report was "powerful innocence evidence" because it showed the eyewitness, who had survived being shot in the head during the robbery, did not actually identify Simmons.

"Not only would the withheld lineup report have changed the outcome of Simmons trial, but it would also have prevented the State from being able to try Simmons at all," the lawyers wrote on Nov. 17. They also pointed to the testimony of a dozen witnesses who said that Simmons had been in Louisiana at the time of the murder.

His attorneys also said that the "actual innocence" claim was a necessary first step in Simmons being able to pursue monetary compensation from the state for the several decades he spent wrongfully imprisoned. But any compensation, Norwood cautioned, was not guaranteed and could be long into the future.

Glynn Simmons reads the court order Tuesday as his attorneys Joe Norwood and John Coyle, left, niece Cecilia Hawthorne and Madeline Jones, right, look on after Judge Amy Palumbo ruled to approve Simmons' u0022actual innocenceu0022 claim.
Will Simmons be compensated by the state?

Simmons is eligible for up to $175,000 in compensation from the state of Oklahoma for the wrongful conviction but it could be years before he sees any of that money, Norwood said.

Norwood added that Simmons is living off of donations, primarily from GoFundMe, while he's undergoing treatment for cancer, The Associated Press reported.

“Whatever compensation he has coming is down the road, but I would just encourage people to donate to Glynn's GoFundMe, because money ain’t showing up in his bank account tomorrow," Norwood said.

Simmons can also file a federal lawsuit against Oklahoma City and law enforcement officers who were involved in Simmons’ arrest and conviction, Norwood said.
'Black people's voices need to be heard'

Don Roberts, Simmons' co-defendant in 1975, also was convicted of Rogers’ murder. At the time, both men received the death penalty, but their sentences were modified to life in prison after a 1977 U.S. Supreme Court decision. Roberts was released on parole in 2008.

The University of Michigan Law School’s National Registry of Exonerations lists Simmons as the longest-served wrongful incarceration in its database of exonerees.

Simmons’ exoneration comes amid a time of heightened scrutiny of both mass incarceration and the death penalty throughout the United States. Counties with high numbers of wrongful convictions show patterns of systemic misconduct from police and other officials, and researchers argue that race often plays a role.

Perry Lott — another high-profile exoneree who saw his 1988 Pontotoc County rape conviction officially overturned this year thanks to DNA testing — appeared at the court Tuesday in support of Simmons. He was visibly moved as Palumbo revealed she would grant Simmons’ request, and he later told The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network, that he noticed the parallels in the cases between him and Simmons.

"People need to understand that Black people’s voices need to be heard, once and for all," Lott said. "We’re not angry, we’re not upset, but there’s an enemy out here and he’s not seen."

"Don’t be scared to stand up for what’s right," Lott added. "We need your voice in this war against injustice."

Who are the 11 people?: Oklahoma tied for the 2nd most death row convictions overturned in the US.
Who else has spent decades in prison before being exonerated?

The University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science and Society, the University of Michigan Law School, and the Michigan State University College of Law are tracking the lengths of time exonerees have been incarcerated across the country.

"While the average time spent in prison for all of the exonerees in the National Registry of Exonerations is just over nine years, there have been some prisoners who spent an extraordinary amount of time imprisoned for crimes they did not commit," the project database reads.

Before Simmons' exoneration, Anthony Mazza spent the longest time incarcerated after he served 47 years and two months in prison in Massachusetts. He was originally sentenced to life in prison without parole for a murder in Boston. He was exonerated in 2020.

Richard Phillips was imprisoned for 46 years in Michigan after being sentenced to life in prison for murder before he was exonerated in 2018. Isaiah Andrews was imprisoned for more than 45 years in Ohio in 2020. He died at the age of 83 in 2022. And Wilbert Jones served more than 44 years in prison in Louisiana before he was cleared of rape charges in 2018.

Dozens of other exonerees across the nation have spent more than 30 years in prison, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.

'The truth has finally set him free.' Man released after serving 28 years for crime he didn't commit

Contributing: Associated Press

Alexys Woods, with the Oklahoma County public defender's office, takes a selfie with Glynn Simmons on Tuesday after the ruling.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Glynn Simmons formally exonerated in Oklahoma after 48 years in prison

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Cummins to pay record-setting $1.675 billion US environmental fine


Fri, December 22, 2023 

Illustration shows Cummins logo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Truck engine maker Cummins Inc has agreed in principle to pay a $1.675 billion fine for installing devices on hundreds of thousands of engines to allow them to emit excess pollution, the largest-ever civil penalty for a Clean Air Act violation, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

The Department said Cummins allegedly installed so-called "defeat devices" to bypass or disable emissions controls such as emission sensors and onboard computers.

The department said Cummins used defeat devices on 630,000 2013 to 2019 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines and undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices on 330,000 2019 to 2023 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines to cheat emissions control requirements.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said "preliminary estimates suggest that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have caused them to produce thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides." It is the second largest environmental penalty deal ever reached, the department said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said "vulnerable communities are more likely to reside near highways where these harmful emissions are concentrated, making this agreement critical to advancing our environmental justice agenda."

Cummins said it expects to take a nearly $2.04 billion charge in the fourth quarter to resolve regulatory claims relating to nearly one million engines from the Justice Department and California Air Resources Board.

"The company has seen no evidence that anyone acted in bad faith and does not admit wrongdoing," Cummins said in a statement.

The formal settlement, which will need court approval, will be made public as early as next month.

RAM-owner Stellantis declined to comment. The 960,000 vehicles have been recalled and the emissions control software will be updated, Cummins said, which previously took a $59 million charge for emissions recalls.

Cummins first announced in April 2019 it was internally reviewing its emissions certification process and compliance.

Cummins previously said U.S. regulators were scrutinizing Nissan Titan trucks from the 2016 to 2019 model years and that it was developing a new software calibration and hardware fix and would recall the trucks.

Cummins previously took $59 million in charges to address the costs of the RAM and Titan recalls. Nissan did not immediately comment Friday.

The company, which also counts PACCAR and Daimler Trucks North America as its customers, said about $1.93 billion is expected to be paid in the first half of 2024.

Jeffries said in a research note the charge "is significant but is not expected to impact normal business operations." Cummins shares were down 2.3% in early afternoon trading to $238.47.

In August 2022, the U.S. business of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles -- now a unit of Stellantis -- pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy and paid nearly $300 million to resolve a multi-year U.S. Justice Department diesel-emissions fraud probe. FCA US LLC was also sentenced to a three-year term of organizational probation.

Volkswagen paid $1.45 billion in U.S. civil penalties in 2017 after the German automaker in 2015 disclosed that it had cheated emissions tests by installing defeat devices" in 11 million vehicles worldwide, using sophisticated software to reduce emissions only during emissions tests.

Volkswagen in total settled U.S. civil and criminal actions prompted by the emissions scandal for more than $20 billion.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Josie Kao)