The Murder of Judith Johnson (Crime Documentary)
- 5 years ago
Clarence Arnold Elkins Sr. (born January 19, 1963) is an American man who was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, Melinda Elkins's mother, and the rape and assault of his niece, Brooke. He was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of his 6-year-old niece who testified that Elkins was the perpetrator.
Brooke later voiced doubts about her identification, claiming that in her initial statement when she said ""He looked like uncle Clarence"", she simply meant that he reminded her of Elkins as opposed to being a positive identification and that she only identified him in her testimony because Summit County Prosecutor Maureen O'Connor (now Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court) and lead prosecutor Michael Carroll urged her to. Brooke recanted her statement and Elkins appealed on that basis, but his appeal was denied.
The family finally raised funding to test DNA found at the scene and he was excluded. Once again, his appeal was denied. The judge ruled that because the jury convicted Elkins without the DNA results, it was likely that he would have been convicted even if the DNA did not match.
Elkins' wife, Melinda, conducted her own investigation. She eventually identified Johnson's next door neighbor, Earl Mann, a convicted sex offender, as a likely suspect. Elkins collected a cigarette butt from Mann, who was serving time at the same prison as her husband, and Mann was found to be a match. Elkins was finally exonerated after serving 6.5 years in prison.
Elkins now works as an advocate to halt wrongful convictions and was instrumental in getting Ohio to pass Senate Bill 77, also known as Ohio's Innocence Protection Act. This bill contains provisions requiring the police to follow best practices for eyewitness identifications, provides incentives for the videotaping of interrogations and requires that DNA be preserved in homicide and sexual assault cases. A 2009 documentary was made about the case titled Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins. He was also featured on Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen in 2017. Also in 2017, Fox 8 Cleveland covered Elkins' trip to Chicago where he had a procedure called Stellate ganglion Block performed on him and his wife Molly by Dr. Eugene Lipov. This procedure was done in hopes to reduce symptoms of PTSD.
Brooke later voiced doubts about her identification, claiming that in her initial statement when she said ""He looked like uncle Clarence"", she simply meant that he reminded her of Elkins as opposed to being a positive identification and that she only identified him in her testimony because Summit County Prosecutor Maureen O'Connor (now Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court) and lead prosecutor Michael Carroll urged her to. Brooke recanted her statement and Elkins appealed on that basis, but his appeal was denied.
The family finally raised funding to test DNA found at the scene and he was excluded. Once again, his appeal was denied. The judge ruled that because the jury convicted Elkins without the DNA results, it was likely that he would have been convicted even if the DNA did not match.
Elkins' wife, Melinda, conducted her own investigation. She eventually identified Johnson's next door neighbor, Earl Mann, a convicted sex offender, as a likely suspect. Elkins collected a cigarette butt from Mann, who was serving time at the same prison as her husband, and Mann was found to be a match. Elkins was finally exonerated after serving 6.5 years in prison.
Elkins now works as an advocate to halt wrongful convictions and was instrumental in getting Ohio to pass Senate Bill 77, also known as Ohio's Innocence Protection Act. This bill contains provisions requiring the police to follow best practices for eyewitness identifications, provides incentives for the videotaping of interrogations and requires that DNA be preserved in homicide and sexual assault cases. A 2009 documentary was made about the case titled Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins. He was also featured on Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen in 2017. Also in 2017, Fox 8 Cleveland covered Elkins' trip to Chicago where he had a procedure called Stellate ganglion Block performed on him and his wife Molly by Dr. Eugene Lipov. This procedure was done in hopes to reduce symptoms of PTSD.