Summary
In the joyful pandemonium nobody notices the girl hanging back, reluctant to join in the mass embrace of Clarence Elkins -- her Uncle Clarence -- as he walks out of the Mansfield Correctional Institution. Elkins steps through the security gate and flashes the back of his hand under a blue light that shows it has been swabbed to indicate he is free to go.
Just yesterday, he was Inmate Number A375856, convicted killer, child rapist. Now, he is Clarence Elkins, husband, father, devout Christian, avid fisherman. As he hugs his mother and father, his wife Melinda and their boys Clarence and Brandon, Elkins can't stop smiling.See the full content of this document
Extract
Murder, Then Rush to Judgment
"He's home, finally," Brandon thinks as he clutches his father.
It is Dec. 15, 2005, nearly eight years since Clarence Elkins was hauled away in handcuffs for a crime he didn't commit. Brooke Sutton watches shyly, feeling like a wallflower at the party. She is 14 now, looking like Little Orphan Annie almost grown up. She is the girl with the curly, reddish-brown hair, the dimpled cheeks and the crushing guilt.She is the only one in the family for whom the joy and anticipation are mixed with dread and anxiety. She is the one who was in the house the night her grandma was killed, the night she herself was raped and beaten.She is the one who said, "Uncle Clarence did it."She was only 6 years old the day she said it. But in her mind that doesn't exonerate her. She knows that her words put him behind bars, tore her family apart.Her words caused her cousins Brandon and Little Clarence to grow up without their dad. Without their mom, really, since Melinda -- Aunt Mindy -- worked feverishly to free her husband and track...See the full content of this document
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