He was convicted solely on the basis of the testimony of his wife's six-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 at the urging of Summit County Prosecutor Maureen O'Connor (Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court until 2022) and the main courtroom prosecutor, Michael Carroll.

She eventually identified Johnson's next door neighbor, Earl Mann, a convicted sex offender, as a likely suspect.

Elkins collected a cigarette end from Mann, who was serving time at the same prison, and provided it to his defense attorney for testing.

[6] Also in 2017, Fox 8 Cleveland covered Elkins' trip to Chicago, where a procedure called "Stellate ganglion block" was performed on both him and his wife Molly, by Dr. Eugene Lipov.

She was raped, stabbed, and beaten so severely that her nose, jaw, collarbone and skull were all fractured in the assault.

She was also beaten, raped, strangled, and suffered a small cut to her throat, but survived without any memory of the attack.

She regained consciousness several hours later — around 7:00 a.m.[10]— and telephoned a neighbor, leaving a message on their answering machine: I'm sorry to tell you this, but my grandma died and I need somebody to get my mom for me.

[9] Brooke then walked to a neighbor's house, the home of Earl Mann's common-law-wife Tonia Brasiel, and knocked on the door.

[13] She later described the situation on Larry King: "I woke up and I found my grandma dead, I went to a next door neighbor's house and I told her that it looked like my uncle Clarence and it sounded like him.

"[14][15] At trial, the prosecution theorized that Elkins killed his mother-in-law due to frustration because she was meddling in his then-contentious marriage to her daughter, Melinda.

She testified that she saw Clarence return home, and knew he remained there, as she was awake most of the night caring for a sick child.

[9] Summit County Common Court Judge Judy Hunter denied Elkins' motion in July 2005.

After the second failed appeal, the family's further research gained information regarding the next door neighbor, Tonia Brasiel, who had driven Brooke home the morning after the attack.

It was discovered that Brasiel's common law husband, Earl Mann, was a convicted sex offender who had been released from prison just two days before the murder, on June 5, 1998.

He had an extensive criminal record for crimes ranging from a racially motivated assault on another man to robberies.

[22] In 2005, after Mann was identified as a suspect, Barberton police officer Gerard Antenucci brought to the attention of the prosecution the existence of a memorandum from 1999, four months before Elkins' trial.

Petro personally contacted prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, on several occasions, regarding the case.

Petro then took the unorthodox action of having a press conference, in order to publicly pressure the prosecutor to dismiss the charges.

He later filed a civil suit against the Barberton police for failing to disclose the incriminating statement by Earl Mann during his 1999 arrest.

[26][failed verification] Melinda Elkins Dawson was instrumental in getting Ohio to pass Senate Bill 262, also known as Post Conviction DNA Law.

As a public speaker and victim advocate, she continues to fight for justice and to increase awareness of wrongful convictions.

Elkins spent much time advocating for what has been termed the "national model" of innocence reform bills, and the "most important piece of criminal justice legislation in Ohio in a century".

[3][4] Clarence also engages in public speaking about his case and wrongful convictions in general at universities and other locations across the United States.

[10] Since the night of the crime, Judy's family has been divided due to the case, with some members certain of his guilt and others of his innocence.

[29] In an interview with Forensic Files, Melinda said that she and Clarence never blamed her niece Brooke for his imprisonment, but admitted that she hadn't spoken to her or her mother since the trial.

In an interview with Forensic Files, she expressed remorse for misidentifying her uncle and for putting him and Melinda in the situation they had.