Willie Junior Simmons is an Alabama resident sentenced life without parole for first-degree robbery in 1982 for wrestling a man to the ground to steal his wallet, which contained US$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 in Atmore, Alabama, since 1982, originally at Holman Correctional Facility, and from the summer of 2021 at Fountain Correctional Facility, where he remained as of 2024[update], after 43 years.
In 1982, at the age of 25, Simmons wrestled down a man on the street and stole his wallet, containing $9.
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.
Several publications, including Essence magazine,[2] NPR[3] and the Washington Examiner,[4] and celebrity activists such as Kim Kardashian have highlighted his story.