How DNA Exonerated Man Wrongfully Convicted of Murder and Rape — Transcript

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1. 0:00I want to introduce another story
2. 0:01because DNA, as we know, has changed the
3. 0:03landscape of criminal cases. That
4. 0:05started about 30 years ago and because
5. 0:07of it some 349 convictions have been
6. 0:10overturned here in the US. DNA was the
7. 0:12piece of the puzzle that would help set
8. 0:14Clarence Elkins free. This is his story.
9. 0:18June 7th, uh, 1998 on a Sunday morning,
10. 0:22I heard a car door and walked out my
11. 0:24back door to see who may have pulled in
12. 0:27my driveway and here was law enforcement
13. 0:31that had surrounded my property. I was
14. 0:33handcuffed and they wouldn't let me go
15. 0:35back into the house, wouldn't let me
16. 0:36around my family, my my two sons 11 and
17. 0:3913, wouldn't let me around my wife at
18. 0:41that time.
19. 0:43I was arrested for the murder and rape
20. 0:46of my mother-in-law Judy Johnson as well
21. 0:48as attempted murder and three counts of
22. 0:51rape of her 6-year-old grandchild. They
23. 0:54told me that the 6-year-old niece
24. 0:56allegedly had identified me as the the
25. 1:00attacker. I was ultimately convicted a
26. 1:02year later
27. 1:03and sentenced to 55 years to life.
28. 1:08Seven years being incarcerated, I was
29. 1:11told
30. 1:13by
31. 1:14my wife then
32. 1:16that possibly the actual perpetrator was
33. 1:20in the same prison as I was and that if
34. 1:23there was a chance that possibly I could
35. 1:25get some sort of DNA evidence. So I I
36. 1:28got to know what he looked like and who
37. 1:29he was. I seen him standing up
38. 1:32getting ready to walk away, putting a
39. 1:34cigarette butt out and so I quickly got
40. 1:36it out of the ashtray.
41. 1:38Mailed out my the cigarette butt
42. 1:40secretly
43. 1:42and my attorney told me we got a 99.9
44. 1:46match
45. 1:47with the cigarette butt
46. 1:49and the
47. 1:51undergarments and the vaginal swab from
48. 1:53the crime scene.
49. 1:55I believe it was in 2004 my wife at that
50. 1:57time
51. 1:59reached out to the Ohio Innocence
52. 2:00Project. They took over my case. It took
53. 2:03them to straighten this mess out. The
54. 2:06DNA evidence was mentioned on national
55. 2:09TV. That's when
56. 2:11I was very concerned as well for my safe
57. 2:16being. So, they moved me to solitary
58. 2:18confinement. I was in solitary
59. 2:20confinement for approximately
60. 2:233 months
61. 2:25and before
62. 2:26I finally walked out of the prison for
63. 2:29good.
64. 2:31We'll meet Clarence when we come back.