Transcript for the Piece Audio version of DNA evidence leads to freedom.

Promo: Tomorrow on (program), how thankful are YOU to be home for the holidays, just ask Clarence Harrison. Last Christmas he was in a 6 by 12 jail cell, known as ‘The Hole.’

[PRX Segment 2] CH: "Completely isolated, with nothing . . . I was completely isolated with nothing but thoughts, no where to go, locked down and just all alone." - :09

Turns out, Harrison is innocent; today he’s free. We’ll talk to him and the Atlanta based organization that helps to prove innocence. (date) on (program), here on (station).
-------------------------------
Lead in: Clarence Harrison spent years in prison for a rape that he did not commit. Advancements in DNA processing helped to prove him innocent and last August he was set free. Then, 18-days later ‘ and after nearly 18-years in prison -- he was married. Today he has a job. And while his life did get better after prison, it is not always easier. David Barasoain (BEAR-es-wayne) reports.
-----------------------------
[PRX Segment one] Clarence Harrison and his wife, Yvonne (ye-von), are still trying to still trying to adjust to his release from prison. Even after their first thanksgiving together, they’re still trying to take it all in.

ACT 1: 2:26 - It was like it still didn’t seem real to her and it still didn’t seem real to me . . . and sometimes I still say to her, you goanna fix my tray she don’t like to hear me say that. . . (wife) at dinner time if I’m setting the table, if I’m setting the table, he’ll ask if I can fix my tray, and he’ll just start laughing, I’ll say ‘fix your what’’ He says, ‘oh I’m sorry’ and its like he’s still incarcerated, but he do catch himself from time to time (laugh).’ :22

Clarence Harrison was exonerated in large part due to the work of the Georgia Innocence Project. Typically Innocence Projects use the tiniest samples of DNA to help clear their clients.

ACT 2: 2:31 ‘it’s the final look at the last bit of evidence’. :05

Aimee Maxwell is a 17 year criminal defense lawyer and the Executive Director of the Georgia Innocence project. To date, Innocence projects like GIP, have helped free over 150-prisoners across the United States, 4 of them from Georgia. And right now it seems there is a great demand for their services.

ACT 3: 2:05 ‘we have received requests from over 17-hunded clients, but we have a very strict screening process and have only accepted 7 clients’. :14

Now seven might not seem like much, but you have to consider the pace in which a request like this moves. The prisoner writes in, a case file is made up, law school interns do the research, they present their findings to a legal advisory board and only if its successfully argued can the case proceed:

ACT 4: 6:08 ‘then we being looking for the DNA evidence. We file open records requests, we get the entire police file, the entire DA file and everything GBI has.’ :09

The Harrison case for Georgia Innocence is in contrast to the first case they filed for a Valdosta prisoner, who was ‘ with DNA evidence ‘ actually found to be guilty. And it was from that point that GIP proceeded cautiously with Harrison:

ACT 5:
AM: You may not want this test. If it comes back and its bad, its going to hurt you.
CH: And I told her, well when you get the test done you can celebrate that’s for you.
AM: When I got the test back and told him he didn’t react very much. I told him. ‘Mr. Harrison this is good news.’ He said, ‘Aimee I always knew the answer’.
CH: But I thought that the test result should have been for her, because she needed that. It would have helped her to go back in believing in others, she had stopped believing after that.
AM: That made me feel great. It was a wonderful thing. He already knew the results.
TT: 38

And that result also led to his full exoneration. Done, in record time, just 7-days from the time the DNA results came back. The result was totally unexpected. He walked into court that day a prisoner and out a free man.

ACT 6: 19:58 - ‘ you’re happy, but you’re kind of scared and unsure, cause you’ve been in prison and you don’t know what to expect, and you don’t know . . . so 20 years have been gone, so when I walk out that door what am I going to expect out there, how am I going to react to family, not being in prison, but being free. :18

And adjusting to that freedom is not always easy for Harrison. There are the simple things like leaning how to drive a car, use a computer and how to operate a cell phone. But its also the realization that he was in prison for 17 years because a mistake was made. And while he’s trying to forgive he’s still not sure how to come to terms with spending all those years behind bars. When I ask him if his life is normal, he’s not sure what to say.

ACT 7: 31:07 What you call ‘normalcy’ I don’t quite know what that is . . . uh, as far as family and things I spend as much time as I can but, (pausing) there . . . there’s some things that probably need working with. :13

Christmas this year will be understandably different for Harrison, but not just for the obvious reasons of family and friends. Last Christmas Harrison was in solitary confinement for having two radios and locked away in a 6 x 12 jail cell known as, ‘The Hole’.

ACT 8: 35:01 Last Christmas for me . . . oh I was in the hole last Christmas . . . I forgot, I was in the hole. I was isolated from the rest of the population of the prison. It was by me, by myself :16

But this Christmas he won’t be alone. He’ll be surrounded by family and friends, as his wife Yvonne explains.

ACT 9: 37:26, Most likely we’ll spend it with our family and with each other and probably his favorite dishes we’ll have for Christmas dinner and exchange gifts with family members. And just enjoy each other be thankful that this Christmas is our first Christmas that we can enjoy together that we can actually enjoy and we’ll give God all the praise for it. :23

From here Clarence and his wife are still working on adjusting. And the Georgia Innocence project says their hope is that the state legislature will find a way to compensate Mr. Harrison.