DALLAS -
A Dallas man who was exonerated of murder in 2009 was again arrested early Wednesday.
Claude Simmons, 57, was booked into the Dallas County jail at 5:30 a.m. on a drug possession charge.
Simmons and another man, Christopher Scott, were exonerated in 2009 for a home invasion murder that happened twelve years before. Based on the convictions, the two spent a dozen years in prison.
Simmons and Scott were not cleared by DNA evidence, but rather the work of two university student innocence groups.
The Actual Innocence Clinic and UT Arlington's Innocence Network brought the case to Dallas County's Conviction Integrity Unit, which launched an investigation.
The District Attorney's office found Simmons and Scott were convicted primarily on a witness's faulty identification.
Two other men -- one of whom was already in jail --- were later identified as suspects.
Simmons is not the first recently-freed exoneree to find himself in trouble again.
Last month, 60-year-old James Woodard of dallas died in jail after he suffered a seizure. He had been arrested on outstanding traffic violations.
