The country's highest court decided Monday not to hear a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee brought by a man who spent 24 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Daryl Holloway's petition, which was submitted in December. This is not uncommon as the court receives hundreds of petitions but is only able to hear a limited number. No notes or comments were made by the court on the matter.
This ends legal action regarding Holloway against the city.
“At the end of the day, you’ve got ... the district court finding that these officers didn’t violate the rights of a man who did 24 years for something he definitively did not commit," said Holloway's attorney, Nate Cade. "The lineup was horrible, and at every turn, the system failed."
Holloway initially sued several detectives and the city in October 2019. He argued his civil rights were violated by the Milwaukee police detectives who he says framed him for two rapes he did not commit. The Milwaukee man later was exonerated of the charges, but not until after he served 24 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman granted summary judgment to the city in September 2021.
A federal appellate court ruled in August Holloway's civil rights may have been violated, but also ruled the officers were protected by qualified immunity and couldn't be held liable for damages.
The 7th Circuit panel found problems with the identification procedures, but agreed with Adelman there was no support for the other claims.
"Here, even if the defendants violated Holloway’s constitutional rights, (during the identification process) Holloway cannot show that the unlawfulness of their conduct was “clearly established at the time,'” the appeals court found.
"Because Holloway can point to no controlling or persuasive authority that clearly established that it was impermissible for the police to use a photo array only a day or so before the physical lineup, defendants are entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law."
The Wisconsin Claims Board has recommended the state award Holloway $1 million for his wrongful conviction. Wisconsin law provides exonerated inmates no more than $5,000 for each lost year of their life, up to a total of $25,000 — among the lowest amounts in the country.
In a unanimous decision in April 2022, the claims board said the amount was "not adequate" in this case. The amount must be approved by the state legislature. which has not approved any amount yet.
Cade said the city has not apologized to Holloway. The perpetrator of the crimes for which Holloway was wrongfully convicted has not been found or charged.
"That’s the worst part about this," Cade said. "A number of women have been sexually assaulted and their assailant hasn’t been caught. The guy who committed these rapes could be dead, could be in prison or could be walking free."
More: Milwaukee man exonerated by DNA after 24 years in prison
Here's how he was wrongfully convicted
Holloway was arrested during a string of rapes in 1992. Neither victim in two of the cases, from September 1992, saw their assailant's face. However, both eventually picked Holloway in lineups.
According to Holloway's lawsuit, each of the women had been shown photo arrays of suspects shortly before the lineup. Holloway was the only person in both the photo array and the lineup.
Both women described their attacker as standing 5-foot-7 or 5-foot-8 inches tall. Holloway, who is 5-foot-10, was placed among other taller men in the lineup, against a wall that had no height markings.
Other women who had been raped during the same period and were in the same area attended the lineup but did not identify Holloway.
"One thing I hope people take from this is to at least view with some level of skepticism when police say we’ve caught our guy because that’s not always the case," Cade said. "There’s always multiple sides to the story. I hope they listen to the other side of the story. Mr. Holloway was convicted with no physical evidence, no DNA, no blood, no urine. Granted this was 30 years ago, but that should scare everybody."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: U.S. Supreme Court passes on wrongfully convicted Milwaukee man's lawsuit
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