The Real Timeline

Here is what the evidence shows.

Clarance was dropped off at his parents’ house by Kenneth before the murders occurred. His mother and his brother’s girlfriend, who was living in the home at the time, both testified that he spent the night there. Phone records showed Kenneth calling Clarance from a payphone later that night, which establishes that the two men were not together, which dismantles the prosecution’s scenario.

The murders happened hours later, in the early morning hours. Legal documentation supports this. At the time the murders took place, Clarance was at Michael Scott’s house. Michael signed an affidavit confirming this. The timeline is not speculative. It is documented.

By the time Kenneth called Clarance for help with a passed-out Ronald, the crime had already been committed. Kenneth was not calling for backup. He was calling because he had a problem, a passed-out man in his car, and Clarance was the person he thought could help. Kenneth was as surprised as Clarance when they later learned what had happened that night.

The prosecution needed someone to blame. Clarance fit what the system needed: a record, involvement in drugs, the wrong race in the wrong city in the wrong courtroom. He had also made the mistake, the kind of mistake that only looks like a mistake in retrospect, of being a decent person who showed up when someone called him for help. That is what put him in Michelle’s house that night. That is what put him in the vicinity of a crime he had nothing to do with.

That is how innocent people end up on death row.

The way every door that should have opened instead closed.