ABSTRACT
Clarence Elkins was convicted of the 1998 rape and murder of his mother-in-law, Judith Johnson, and the rape and beating of his 6-year-old niece, Brooke Sutton. His niece witnessed the murder and was left to die by the murderer-rapist. With no physical evidence linking Elkins to the attack, his niece’s testimony was the compelling crucial evidence that persuaded the jury to convict her uncle. Only hours after the attack, the girl told police that the intruder was her uncle. While in jail Elkins was able to obtain a cigarette butt of another inmate, Earl Mann, who was a convicted sex offender and was staying next door to the Elkinses at the time of the attack. DNA testing revealed that the DNA from the cigarette was a match with the samples found at the murder scene. After spending 7 years in prison, Elkins was exonerated in December of 2005. This example illustrates that illusory or false memories can have damaging effects. This issue is particularly important to practitioners in the legal field because the consequence of false memories can be devastating, as in the case of Clarence Elkins. Furthermore, this is just one of many cases in which people have been wrongly convicted and incarcerated based on a false memory.
