ABSTRACT
ALTHOUGH DISAPPOINTED, Melinda remained undaunted and showed remarkable resilience by redoubling her efforts. Carrying mount-ing debt, she launched a website, www.freeclarence.com, in September 2003. The site featured a 1996 Elkins family photo with Clarence, Melinda, and their young boys dressed in casual clothes. All smiling into the camera’s eye, they were the typical American family, with no clue that their lives would soon be turned upside down and would never return to the normalcy of this snapshot. Below the family photo, an image of the stark, foreboding face of Lebanon Correctional Facility communicated their new reality. Also on the home page: a case history that began on June 4, 1999, the day after the jury had received the case. Clarence was convicted of murder, attempted aggravated murder, three counts of rape, and felonious assault. Melinda shared the haunting tale of a wrongful conviction.
