40 Years Later, Willie Simmons Remains in an Alabama Prison for Stealing $9
How habitual offender laws put a man behind bars for life
It might sound outrageous to think that anyone would be given a life sentence without parole for stealing $9, but that is exactly what happened to Alabama resident, Willie Junior Simmons.
Okay, but surely there is more to it than that, right? He must have killed or done irreparable harm to someone in the commission of the crime. At the very least, he had a weapon ready for use on his victim. He surely had a long history of violent crimes.
No. None of that is the case.
Willie Simmons did have a criminal record, but his three previous convictions were all for nonviolent crimes. However, because of them, he was tried under the Habitual Felony Offender Act (HFOA) in place in Alabama when a then 25-year-old Simmons committed his fourth crime in 1982.
Simmons had previously served nearly 10 months in 1975 and just shy of 16 months in 1979, both sentences were for receiving stolen property. He was also sentenced to three years for grand larceny in 1979. His first crime had been committed before he was 18 years old.
Simmons was born into a poor household in Enterprise, Alabama, in 1957. He had joined the…
