Ohio Innocence Project wins man's release

Cincinnati.com articles last week reported on the release of Roger Dean Gillispie, a Dayton-area man who spent two decades in prison for rapes that U.C. “Innocence Project” law students and others believe he did not commit.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Michael Merz, on Dec. 15th. found Gillespie’s habeas corpus “meritorious,” ordering his release from custody unless retried & convicted by July 1, 2012. That was slightly modified yesterday in response to the State’s appealing the decision, by the Court’s “recognizing that Fed. R. App.P. 23(c) creates a presumption in favor of release pending appeal of a successful application for the writ, but that the presumption must be balanced against “the factors traditionally considered in deciding whether to stay a judgment in a civil case.” Gillispie’s release is conditional, pending the Sixth Circuit appeal and any subsequent review by the U.S. Supreme Court, and his remaining within the Southern District of Ohio on electronically monitored home detention.

( Court’s order )