A man who spent over a decade in prison for a murder conviction that was later vacated may finally get what he believes he was denied all those years ago — a fair trial in front of an Indiana jury.

Walter Goudy’s civil case can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled last week. The court reversed a district court ruling in favor of the defendants in his lawsuit, according to court documents and Goudy’s attorney.

The defendants include former Anderson Police detective Steve Napier and Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings, who investigated the murder case as an Anderson Police detective and decided to prosecute Goudy after he took office.

“Walter is elated that he is finally going to get the opportunity to present his case to a jury in Indianapolis,” Chicago attorney Richard Dvorak told IndyStar. “And they can decide whether Cummings and Napier were responsible for his wrongful conviction.”

IndyStar has reached out to attorneys for the defendants, which include the state of Indiana. In a statement to IndyStar, the Indiana Attorney General’s office said it’s “carefully reviewing the decision to determine the appropriate next step.”

Goudy, a former Indianapolis resident, sued Cummings and Napier in February 2012. The lawsuit came about two years after the same federal appeals court reversed his murder conviction, finding that police reports that pointed to a different suspect were never turned over to Goudy's defense attorney. In January 2012, a special prosecutor dismissed the charges against Goudy.

Detective in case elected prosecutor

Goudy spent almost 16 years in prison after he was convicted of fatally shooting a man in Anderson in 1993, his lawsuit states.

The lawsuit accuses Cummings and Napier, who were Anderson Police detectives at the time of the shooting, of intentionally withholding evidence in the case.

It also accuses Cummings, the current Madison County prosecutor, of malicious prosecution. When he investigated the case as a police detective, the prosecutor at that time dismissed the charges against Goudy after witnesses said he was at a party in Indianapolis at the time of the shooting.

Cummings was elected Madison County prosecutor in 1994. After he took office, he prosecuted Goudy for the killing, but later recused himself from the case, according to court documents.

Cummings is still the Madison County prosecutor. He told IndyStar that Napier retired from the police force and works as an investigator in his office.

Cummings stands by his decision to prosecute Goudy.

“This is not some innocent man who’s being framed for a murder,” Cummings told IndyStar. “He got away with murder. I think the (district court) judge’s decision was outstanding. I think it was accurate. But the appeals court decided otherwise.”

The civil lawsuit was plagued by evidence issues similar to the criminal case. In March 2017, U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker sanctioned two attorneys — including one with the Indiana Attorney General's Office and another at an Indianapolis firm — for withholding documents from Goudy's attorneys.

The judge, though, did not find that the failure was due to nefarious reasons.

Later that year, Barker granted defendants’ motions for summary judgment, which takes the case out of the jury’s hands, and then ruled in favor of the defendants.

Questions over video of a lineup

Among its findings was that there was “no evidence” to support the claim that Cummings intentionally concealed a videotape showing a lineup in which several witnesses identified another person as the shooter.

Cummings had checked the video out of the Anderson Police Department Property Room in 1994, when he was not yet prosecutor, and returned the videotape in November 1995, according to the appeals court decision. Goudy’s lawyers allege Cummings kept the video from trial prosecutors to prevent them from disclosing it to Goudy's defense, who had asked for any “relevant videotapes” in the criminal case.

“We do not know where Cummings kept the video, nor do we have a reliable accounting of its whereabouts at any point between September 6, 1994, and November 22, 1995,” the decision said.

Though Cummings acknowledged he could have checked out the videotape, he denied bringing the tape to the department in 1995 in a phone interview with IndyStar. Cummings said he was no longer with the department, so he would not have had access to the property room.

The district court also didn’t find Goudy's theory plausible, finding there was “no evidence in the record that the trial prosecutors made any attempt to obtain the videotape” during the relevant period, the decision said.

Goudy's attorneys later appealed the decision.

Civil case moves forward after ruling

The May 1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit said Barker's ruling against Goudy was “premature.” And while the decision does not concur with the allegations in the lawsuit, it found that Goudy did present enough evidence to move forward with some of its arguments, including the one about the videotape.

That means Goudy can go to trial on his allegations that Cummings and Napier violated his Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and the right to a fair trial, according to the decision and Goudy’s complaint.

Goudy was 25 when he was first arrested in the case. He was 42 when he was released from prison. Now, Goudy is a 52-year-old grandfather.

“If you’re robbed of 16 years of your life, and you are forced to be separated from your family and young children, and be sent to a hellhole to live for a crime you didn’t commit, I think anyone would want justice by suing the people who put them there,” Dvorak said.

A trial date for the case has not been set.

Madeline Buckley contributed to this report.

Contact IndyStar reporter Crystal Hill at 317-444-6094 or cnhill@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @crysnhill.