SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – A dozen former prosecutors have filed a brief with the Illinois Supreme Court supporting a man’s efforts to sue three police officers and a town over his wrongful conviction for murder.

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reports that the brief asks the court to grant Alan Beaman’s request for a trial. Former Gov. Jim Thompson and best-selling crime author Scott Turow are among the lawyers who filed the brief.

Beaman alleges three former Normal police detectives conspired to frame him in the 1993 strangulation death of his ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Lockmiller. The woman was a student at Illinois State University.

Beaman served more than 12 years of a 50-year sentence. The state Supreme Court reversed his murder conviction in 2008.

The high court reversed its decision to dismiss Beaman’s lawsuit last year and granted a petition to consider arguments in the case.