"He deserves an acknowledgment from the government actors who put him in prison for decades that what happened to him was wrong," said his attorney, Sarah Gelsomino.
The lawsuit alleges Cleveland police withheld critical evidence about Regina Andrews' murder on September 18, 1974.
It says Cleveland detectives failed to share information that another suspect, Willie Watts, was initially arrested for the crime.
Watts was released after providing an alibi for the time of death, which was later determined to be "uncertain.".
"I can’t think of a more egregious case of covering up evidence of innocence in any case I’ve worked on.".
Despite the deaths of six of the prosecution's original witnesses and missing pieces of evidence, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office still retried Andrews.
"It’s gross and it’s disgusting," said Marcus Sidoti, Andrews' defense attorney, about the decision to retry the case. »