Exonerees
DEAN
GILLISPIE
On December 22, 2011, Dean Gillispie, then 46, walked out of the doors of the prison that had held him for the past twenty years of his life. His mother embraced him for the first time in twenty years that day. Finally, his name had been cleared, and he was able to start on the path to getting his life back.
Having been accused of multiple counts of rape, kidnapping, and aggravated robbery in 1988, Dean was sentenced to 22 to 56 years in prison. All the while, he was adamant that he had not committed these crimes. Then, in 2003, Mark Godsey and the Ohio Innocence Project (OIP) took on his case. It was then that the proverbial ball was set in motion, heading toward Dean’s eventual release.
After years of progress, although riddled with roadblocks and setbacks, Dean was finally exonerated. After twenty years of insisting his innocence, his voice was heard. And as he stepped out of those dreaded doors, as he was caught up in the embrace of his mother, Dean Gillispie was finally free.
ROBERT McCLENDON
It was August of the year 2008 when Robert McClendon was exonerated from a crime that he was convicted of 18 years before. Based only on a singular piece of incorrectly identified DNA evidence that wasn’t even tested, Robert was convicted of the rape of a ten-year-old girl and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2004, Robert applied for a DNA test, but prosecutors denied him. It was only later, in 2007 and 2008, that any progress was made in his case. At this time, the Ohio Innocence Project began working with the Columbus Dispatch to evaluate cases in Ohio where those who claimed to be innocent were denied DNA testing.
Robert’s case was one of the 30 cases chosen for this evaluation, and in April 2008, he got his DNA test. His innocence was finally proved, and on August 12, 2008, Robert McClendon was a free man.
NANCY
SMITH
In 1993, Nancy Smith was accused of child molestation by an angry mother. Evidence began to be uncovered; it continued to pile up. But this evidence did not prove Nancy guilty-- it proved her innocent.
However, in July of 1994, she was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 94 years in prison. Despite overwhelming evidence proving her innocence, Nancy Smith was imprisoned for a crime that had never even occurred.
Then the Ohio Innocence Project came into the picture. The fight was long and difficult-- and she was even sent back to prison on one occasion-- but after fifteen years of work, in the summer of 2009, Nancy was finally exonerated. After fifteen years of her life were wrested away from her, she finally had her life and her freedom returned to her.
EVIN KING
In 1994, Evin King faced the unimaginable: his girlfriend, Crystal Hudson, was killed, and he was blamed for it. From the beginning, Evin was adamant that he had not committed the crime; however, because there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment he shared with Hudson, he was arrested and charged with the murder. Skin cells were found under Hudson’s nails, but technology at that time was unsuitable to DNA test the sample.
Evin was wrongly convicted of murder in 1995, but continued to insist his innocence and push for DNA testing to be done on the same skin cell evidence that could not be tested years prior. In 2009, he finally received the testing that he’d asked for, but it wasn’t until much later that the Ohio Innocence Project was able to successfully overcome the obstacles and get Evin a hearing.
In 2017, the OIP could finally use the results of the test to prove Evin was innocent. And then, on April 19, 2017, only a day after his hearing, Evin King was able to walk out of that courthouse a free man.
LAURESE GLOVER, DERRICK WHEATT, and EUGENE JOHNSON
In 1995, Laurese Glover, Derrick Wheatt, and Eugene Johnson were convicted of the murder of Clifton Hudson, Jr. The three were present near the scene of the crime, but they immediately left the area when they heard the shots being fired. However, when witness testimony pointed to them as being there, a twist of events had all three of them charged with the crime. A year later, based on the unreliable testimony of a then-14-year-old girl named Tamika Harris, they were convicted.
RAYMOND TOWLER
Ray Towler was accused of a juvenile rape and assault case in May of 1981. After an 11-year-old girl and her 12-year-old male cousin were assaulted in the woods, both children and two additional witnesses selected Ray from a photo array, convinced that it was he who had committed the crime.
On September 18, 1981, Ray was convicted of these crimes based on this testimony, even though his alibi was backed by several witnesses. He was sentenced to life in prison. More than 20 years after his conviction, Ohio instituted a law that allowed DNA testing in limited cases. In 2008, his case was one of the 30 cases selected by the Ohio Innocence Project and the Columbus Dispatch to have DNA testing done. It took four rounds of testing, but with the fourth test came the results needed to set Ray free.
In May 2010, Ray was finally excluded as a perpetrator, and days later, after 28 years in prison, he was rightfully set free.
RICKY JACKSON
In 1975, along with two others, Ricky Jackson was accused of the murder of a money-order collector in a grocery store in Cleveland. There was no evidence that tied the three to the crime; rather, the convictions were based solely on the made-up story of a 12-year-old boy.
It was based on this fabricated story that all three men received the death penalty.
The three came frighteningly close to execution before Eddie Vernon, the child who’d given the story, confessed to making everything up. In order to get to that point, however, the Ohio Innocence Project and the law students affiliated with it had to conduct exhaustive research, which even included knocking on random doors and asking about the case. Vernon’s confession led to another trial, and it was at this trial that, much to the shock of everyone present, the charges against Ricky were dropped right then and there.
It was in this way that, on November 14, 2014, Ricky Jackson walked out of the courthouse free, after having spent nearly 40 years on death row for a crime that he hadn’t committed.
WALLY ZIMMER
On April 1st, 2011, Wally Zimmer was freed from prison, where he was wrongly incarcerated for 12 years. He had been convicted of the murder of an elderly woman simply because a man accused him and Thomas Siller of committing the crime.
The accuser, Jason Smith, was the one who had actually done it, but because a crime lab worker gave false evidence, Wally and Thomas were convicted and imprisoned.
When Wally was well into his sentence, he applied for additional DNA testing. Several spots of blood were identified on the pants Jason Smith wore on the night of the crime, and none of them belonged to Wally or Thomas. However, even though this evidence proved Wally innocent, there was one more hurdle he needed to jump: he was offered his immediate freedom, but only if he agreed to plead guilty to a theft charge.
He took the deal, and after five years of hard work by the OIP, Wally was finally given the freedom that he should have had the whole time.