Takeaways from conversations with wrongfully convicted Ohio residents

Journalist Mary Evans casts a spotlight on wrongful conviction and the work of the Ohio Innocence Project at UC Law.

Evans interviewed several OIP exonerees — Richard Horton, Nancy Smith, Robert McClendon and others — as part of a series of public radio broadcasts known as ReEntry Stories airing on WYSO.

WVXU interviewed Evans and included clips from her storytelling with OIP exonerees along with her commentary on the criminal justice’s treatment of individuals wrongfully convicted of crimes. 

For Richard Horton, who was released from prison in 2022 after serving 23 years for a crime he didn’t commit, new DNA analysis techniques researched and used by OIP students and staff helped secure his freedom.  He had been falsely accused of breaking into a home in Columbus and shooting a victim in the leg during an armed robbery.

“Once I was able to obtain a DNA match that excluded me, that's kind of when the exoneration process began,” Horton told journalists. “A judge granted me a new trial. The state of Ohio had to release me.”

Others like Nancy Smith, gained freedom after being wrongfully convicted but continue to fight to clear their name. Smith is a former Head Start bus driver falsely accused of abusing children in her care. She spent nearly 15 years behind bars before her release with the help of the Ohio Innocence Project. In February 2022, the charges against her were finally dismissed by a judge.

The Ohio Innocence Project at UC Law was founded in 2003 and is continuing its initial purpose: working to free every person in Ohio who has been convicted of a crime they didn’t commit.  OIP has helped 42 people secure their freedom. The group of clients collectively spent more than 800 years behind bars for crimes they didn’t do.

“There was a time when I thought I would never go home,” Smith said in an interview with Evans. “But I never gave up my faith because I knew that this was man's time. This was not God's time. And there were times when I thought He was not with me, you know: ‘Where are you? You're not with me. Why are you letting me go through this?’”.

Listen to WVXU's story on wrongful convictions online.