Emily Chan
For six years, Clarence Elkins was locked up for a crime he knew he did not commit. In 1999, he was convicted for the murder and assault of his 68-year-old mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, and the assault of his six-year-old niece, Brooke Sutton.
His wife stayed by his side the whole time. She was adamant that he was not responsible for such ghastly crimes and worked hard to help prove his innocence.
Finally, in 2005, an Ohio judge vacated the conviction, allowing him to walk back into freedom. So, how did Elkins wrongfully end up in prison?
In June 1998, Elkins’ niece was sleeping over at her grandmother’s house. She woke up in the middle of the night to hear her grandmother screaming. When she ran to the kitchen, she saw her grandmother trying to fight off a man. She fled to her bedroom, but the man followed her and assaulted her.
She woke up the next morning to find her grandmother dead. Then, she went to a neighbor’s house, and the police were notified. The girl told the neighbor that the attacker appeared to be her uncle Clarence. At the trial, she testified that Elkins was the culprit.
When the police arrived at the scene of the crime, they collected evidence. DNA testing was conducted on hairs found on the body of each victim.
The results of the testing showed that the hairs did not come from Elkins. There was no physical evidence to tie Elkins to the crime. They had only Sutton’s word to go off of, and she had only seen the attacker for a brief time in the dark.
Elkins’ lawyers stated that he had been at local bars until 2:30 AM. He arrived home 10 minutes later, went on a walk with his wife, and went to bed. Still, the jury found him guilty of murder and assault. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Immediately after the conviction, Elkins’ wife started working on freeing him from prison. Her mother and niece were the victims in this case. In 2002, Sutton recanted her testimony about Elkins being the perpetrator. However, the judge who ruled over Elkins’ case denied the petition for a new trial.
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