____ his being innocent of the crime, the judge sentenced him to one year imprisonment.

‘in spite of’, ‘despite’ and ‘although’ are all used to show contrast and are used for the same meaning. The only difference is the way they are used; the structure in which they are used. ‘in spite of’ and ‘despite’ are placed in front of a noun or pronoun: We had a great time in spite of the rain. We had a great time despite the rain. Despite studying very hard, he still didn’t pass the exam. ‘studying’ is the noun form of the verb ‘study’ ‘despite’ does NOT have ‘of’ after it: Despite the rough weather they still set sail. NOT, Despite of the bad weather... ‘although’ is used in front of a subject and a verb: We had a great time although it rained. Although he studied very hard, he still didn’t pass the exam. If ‘in spite of’ and ‘despite’ are used in front of the phrase ‘the fact that’ then they can be used with a subject and a verb: In spite of the fact that he studied very hard, he still didn’t pass the exam. Despite the fact that it rained we still had a great time. ‘even though’ can be used the same way as ‘although’. For most native speakers ‘even though’ is slightly stronger than ‘although’: Even though we were in a terrible hotel, we had a great time.