Wrongfully convicted Ohioan awaits $45 million federal lawsuit payment
The Cincinnati Enquirer speaks with Dean Gillispie, an OIP exoneree, about compensation
Three years ago, Dean Gillispie of Fairborn won a $45 million federal lawsuit against Miami Township, a former police detective and others for actions that led to Gillispie’s wrongful imprisonment. The suit alleged that evidence was suppressed and eyewitness identifications were tainted in the 1991 case against Gillispie.
Gillispie, now 60, served 20 years behind bars before he was freed and his name cleared with the help of the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati, former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and Gillispie’s mother Juana Gillispie. He is still waiting for payment from Miami Township, reports the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Gillispie was released from prison in 2011, exonerated in 2017 and declared wrongfully imprisoned in 2021.Since the civil jury decision in 2022, the township has been accruing interest on the unpaid settlement. Miami Township officials told the Cincinnati Enquirer they can’t afford to pay the settlement.
Dean Gillispie, an Ohio Innocence Project exoneree, shown at a symposium about incarceration and art. Photo/UC Marketing + Brand.
The township appealed the settlement and in May 2025, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Gillispie and declined to lower the amount. Gillispie told the Enquirer he’s tired of waiting for compensation.
Since Gillispie’s release he’s been active volunteering and speaking in support of activities to free the wrongfully convicted. He has spoken at national symposiums about how he managed the marking of time for more than two decades behind bars for something he didn’t do.
Gillispie managed time through art and his work has been featured in several media publications He used discarded items to make scenes he dreamed about.
One striking example included making a model of his vision of traveling the legendary Route 66 highway crisscrossing America. One scene he constructed included a toaster-size trailer with a propane tank no bigger than your thumb during his incarceration.
Gillispie spread cigarette-pack foil across notebook cardboard, and used pins taken from the prison sewing shop to hold the whole structure together. The window curtains, made from used tea bags, are partially closed. A tiny sign on the trailer door reads, in nearly microscopic ink script: "gone fishing."
Read the Cincinnati Enquirer story online.
Learn more about Dean’s Gillispie case online.
Find out more about the work of the Ohio Innocence Project online.
Featured top image courtesy of Istock.
Related Stories
Sugar overload killing hearts
November 10, 2025
Two in five people will be told they have diabetes during their lifetime. And people who have diabetes are twice as likely to develop heart disease. One of the deadliest dangers? Diabetic cardiomyopathy. But groundbreaking University of Cincinnati research hopes to stop and even reverse the damage before it’s too late.
Is going nuclear the solution to Ohio’s energy costs?
November 10, 2025
The Ohio Capital Journal recently reported that as energy prices continue to climb, economists are weighing the benefits of going nuclear to curb costs. The publication dove into a Scioto Analysis survey of 18 economists to weigh the pros and cons of nuclear energy. One economist featured was Iryna Topolyan, PhD, professor of economics at the Carl H. Lindner College of Business.
App turns smartwatch into detector of structural heart disease
November 10, 2025
An app that uses an AI model to read a single-lead ECG from a smartwatch can detect structural heart disease, researchers reported at the 2025 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association. Although the technology requires further validation, researchers said it could help improve the identification of patients with heart failure, valvular conditions and left ventricular hypertrophy before they become symptomatic, which could improve the prognosis for people with these conditions.