A US court sentenced a man from Alabama to life imprisonment for stealing a $ 9 wallet.
Willie Simmons started taking drugs while he was in school and became addicted to it.
He was sentenced three times before 1979 for stealing property and buying stolen items. In 1982 Simmons, aged 25, stole a wallet of nine dollars. Since there are three judgments issued against him, he was tried under the (three-law law) in force in the state of Alabama, which provides for long prison terms against perpetrators who committed more than three crimes.
The court sentenced Simons to life imprisonment for stealing nine dollars, without the right to parole. He has now reached 62 years, of which he spent 38 years in the toughest American prison. In 2005 his sister died and nobody visited him again, and all requests to appeal his decision were rejected.
But on December 22, journalist Beth Shelborne visited him, and his story was published on her Twitter page, criticizing the mistakes law.