Miami Twp. submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, which, if it had been approved, would have asked the lower federal court to send up the record of the case for review. A writ of certiorari is a legal tool meant to address potential errors or constitutional questions among lower courts.
That petition was denied on Monday.
This news outlet reached out to Gillispie’s attorneys and the township for comment.
Gillispie of Fairborn spent more than 20 years behind bars for sexual assaults he didn’t commit following an investigation by former Miami Twp. detective Matthew Moore. In 2008, Gillispie sought and received a new trial claiming evidence — including the identification of an alternative suspect and police reports possibly eliminating him as a suspect — were never turned over to his attorneys.
State and federal courts, along with the Ohio Supreme Court, released Gillispie, exonerated him and admitted he had been “wrongly imprisoned.”
Gillispie was freed from prison in 2011 after a federal judge ruled that the reports were never provided to his trial attorney.
In 2013, Gillispie filed a lawsuit, challenging his wrongful conviction.
The charges against Gillispie were formally dropped in 2017 and he was officially deemed wrongfully imprisoned.
A federal court in 2022 awarded Gillispie a $45 million wrongful conviction verdict, the largest in state history.
A federal appeals court ruled last May that Miami Twp. must pay the full $45 million awarded to Gillispie, who spent more than 20 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit. The township’s attorneys at that time said the amount was too high and that the ruling could leave Miami Twp. “financially ruined for generations.”
The court said there was ample evidence showing the harm Gillispie suffered, from being wrongly labeled a violent felon to losing years of freedom and normal life. Because of that, the judges refused to reduce the verdict.
The Ohio Township Association, the Coalition of Large Urban Townships, the Ohio Municipal League and the County Commissioners Association filed a joint amicus brief in support of the township in the request to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Dayton Development Coalition filed a separate amicus brief in support.
