Clarence Elkins was serving life in prison for murder and sexual assault. He claimed he was innocent. DNA at the crime scene was from an unknown male. His wife, Melinda, had suspicions about Earl, a nearby convicted sex offender who had just been re-arrested and now happened to be in the same prison as Clarence. If only Clarence could get some of Earl’s DNA and have it tested. In episode 16. The Wrongful Conviction of Clarence Elkins, I speak with Ben Cotterill.

Ben Cotterill was born and raised in Stirling, Scotland, studied psychology at the University of Strathclyde, and completed his MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology at the University of York in England. He returned to Scotland to earn his PhD at Edinburgh Napier University. Ben is now a lecturer at Clemson University in South Carolina. He teaches courses on forensic psychology and the neuropsychology of criminal behavior and researches psychopathy, child eyewitness memory, and impactors of juror decision-making.

Find him at: https://sites.google.com/view/ben-f-cotterill/home.

NOTES:  Transcripts of this episode are available here and in your Apple Podcasts app.  All links are available at astudyincrime.com. Take a listener survey and help shape future episodes!

Sources for this episode include the following:

• 
  
• Are Children Reliable Witnesses?  by Ben Cotterill
  
• https://casetext.com/case/elkins-v-summit-county
  
• https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3202
  
• https://innocenceproject.org/cases/clarence-elkins/
  
• Conviction: The True Story of Clarence Elkins on Amazon Prime and Freevee.
  

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A Study in Crime™ is written and produced by Scott Fulmer, author of the true-crime memoir Confessions of a Private Eye. He’s a veteran private investigator and has conducted investigations throughout the U.S., everything from fraud and cheating spouses to kidnapping and missing persons. He lives in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio.