| First Name | Clarence |
| Last Name | Elkins |
| Year of Conviction | 1999 |
| Year of Exoneration | 2005 |
| Testing inculpated culprit | Non-Cold Hit |
| State of Conviction | Ohio |
| Trial, Bench Trial, or Guilty Plea | Trial |
| Type of Crime | Rape and Murder |
| Death Sentence | No |
| Life / LWOP sentence | Life |
| Gender of Exoneree | Male |
| Race of exoneree | White |
| Juvenile | No |
| Type of Innocence Defense |
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| Description / Quotes from Testimony Concerning Defense | ● Eight witnesses testified seeing defendant at a bar away from the crime scene at various points in the night while the crime was being committed. ● Defendant’s wife testified that defendant came home after being out at the bar. |
| Did the defendant testify at trial? | Yes |
| Quotes from Exoneree Testimony | “Q: Clarence, the early morning hours of June 7th, 1998 in Barberton, did you kill your mother-in-law? A: No, I did not. Q: Were you even there in Barberton at that time? A: No, I was not. Q: Did you hit Brooke? A: No, I did not. Q: Did you attempt to rape Brooke? A: No, I did not. Q: While all that was happening, where were you? A: Well, I was in bed if this happened, I don’t know what time it happened, but I was in bed after I come home from the bars? Q: And you didn’t leave your house? A: Absolutely not. Q: Are you innocent of these charges? A: Yes, I am innocent.” |
| Types of evidence at trial |
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| Type of Forensic Evidence |
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| Types of Flawed Forensics |
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| Brief Quote / Description of Testimony | A defense witness testified that mitochondrial DNA excluded Elkins. No latent prints were compared; all were deemed insufficient for comparison. |
| Identity of eyewitness |
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| Suggestive Procedures | No – victim eyewitness was an Acquaintance – no identification procedures used |
| Unreliable Identification? | No No description was provided to police. However, six year-old victim did not initially say that “Uncle Clarence” did it, but only after speaking to her mother and father and an officer, did she identify him. She saw the attacker’s face only briefly, “only once,” which was “when he punched me.” |
| Highest level reached | State Post Conviction |
| Claims Raised During All Appeals and Postconviction |
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| Harmless Error Rulings |
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| Citations to judicial opinions | State v. Elkins, 2000 WL 1420285 (Ohio App. 9 Dist. 2000) |