Elkins, Petro to Discuss Innocence Project With UC Community

Students at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, along with the rest of the UC and Greater Cincinnati communities, will have a fascinating opportunity to learn about the mechanics of the legal system as well as one man’s personal odyssey on Feb. 14 when Clarence Elkins visits UC for the first time.

Also visiting along with Elkins will be another key figure in the effort to gain his release, Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro.

Elkins was the first Ohio prisoner exonerated by the Ohio Innocence Project, staffed by UC law students and based at the UC College of Law’s Rosenthal Institute for Justice. He was released from the Mansfield Correctional Institution on Dec. 15, and now will be meeting for the first time as a group the students and lawyers who helped free him after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he did not commit.

Petro was instrumental in the Elkins case in the last few months when, as Ohio’s chief law enforcement official, he publicly announced his belief in Elkins’ innocence and called on local authorities from Summit County to once again review the case.

A program featuring Elkins, Petro and members of the Ohio Innocence Project will begin at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14, in Room 114 of the UC College of Law. The event will also be Webcast live for viewing on the Web, and be projected into Room 104 of the College of Law, should the audience overflow the 190-person capacity of Room 114.

The event is free and open to the public.

"Clarence’s case has been an incredible learning experience for our students, and meeting with him will also bring home the human elements involved in practicing law," said Mark Godsey, UC associate professor of law and faculty director for the Ohio Innocence Project. "What the students have experienced through Clarence’s case goes far beyond the academic lessons we are able to teach in the classroom."

Elkins had been serving a life sentence after being convicted of murder and rape counts involving members of his family. DNA evidence developed after the involvement of the Ohio Innocence Project helped prove not only Elkins’ innocence, but also pointed towards another man as the likely perpetrator of the crime.

The Ohio Innocence Project first began reviewing cases at the UC College of Law in the fall of 2003. In the spring of 2004, it was decided that the facts of Elkins’ case qualified as the kind of case worthy of full intervention by the Innocence Project.

The typical Innocence Project case around the country takes on average about five years to reach conclusion, so Elkins’ release came quickly by that standard – quickly enough that many of the 20 law students who work on the Ohio Innocence Project and who took part in the Elkins case will be there to meet him on his first visit to the UC College of Law.

A large number of contributors from the legal community also worked to help with the Elkins case. Lead counsel for the case were UC’s Godsey and attorney Jana DeLoach of Akron. 

Many members of the legal field provided pro bono assistance on the case, including lawyers from Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, led by Pierre Bergeron, who also leads UC's Appellate Law clinic, and attorneys from the New York firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Significant investigate work for the case was performed by Columbus-based private investigator Martin Yant.