VIDEO: See How UC Students Helped Free Innocent Man Who Spent 18 Years in Prison

Both the Franklin County prosecutor’s office and defense counsel from the OIP indicated after the hearing in media reports that they don’t expect charges to be re-filed against McClendon. That decision would make McClendon the third Ohio inmate to earn exoneration in the five-year history of the OIP, and end a legal odyssey that began for the Columbus resident in 1990, when he was arrested for a rape of a 10-year-old girl, a crime he has steadfastly denied committing ever since.

"The first thing he said when Mike (Harrington) and I went to meet him for the first time was ‘Before we get started, I just want to tell you guys I’m completely innocent of this crime,’ " recalled UC third-year law student Dan O’Brien, who worked on McClendon’s case for most of the last year as an OIP Fellow. "He said that we had to believe that fact if we were going to work on this case."

View Columbus news video coverage of McClendon leaving jail

View CNN.com coverage of McClendon's release

McClendon maintained confidence that a DNA test could clear him. O’Brien ended up drafting a brief that ultimately earned McClendon a chance at a DNA test, despite McClendon's having previous efforts to earn such a test before the OIP joined his case denied.

McClendon also benefited from a project being initiated by the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, which was partnering with the OIP to try and get DNA testing for the state’s inmates whose cases had the most potential to be helped (or hurt, if the DNA would prove their involvement) by the results of testing.

The Dispatch partnership ended up earning DNA testing for 30 inmates – McClendon is the first to have his results come back.

"We have more exciting cases that we are working on than at any other time in our history. The McClendon case is just the beginning," says OIP Faculty Director and UC Professor of Law Mark Godsey. "I think it’s also appropriate in this case to point out that Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien has been the model of what every citizen should want out of a prosecutor. He looked hard at the issues involved in this case, and when he saw what the facts were saying, he was reasonable and cooperative in trying to make sure the right thing got done."

The prosecutor’s office allowed for the DNA testing to be done on the underwear the victim was wearing when attacked. Just locating that piece of evidence, 18 years after the fact, was a chore for UC law students O’Brien and Harrington. New, more sensitive analyzing technology determined the presence of DNA material on the evidence, and when it was tested against a sample taken from McClendon in prison, it was shown not to be a match.