Yesterday, Dean Gillispie, 47, the Ohio Innocence Project’s first client, had yet another court victory. The Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias Heck’s appeal of an earlier court decision that vacated Gillispie’s conviction and sentences.
Gillispie spent 20 years in prison for three 1988 rapes, which he always said he did not commit. His identification by victims in a photo line-up occurred two years after the crimes. No physical evidence connected Gillispie to the crimes.
In December 2011, U.S. District Magistrate Judge Michael R. Merz ordered Gillispie’s release after determining that he did not get a fair trial. Prosecutors Continue reading