ROBERT McCLENDON: SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR A RAPE AND
KIDNAPPING HE DID NOT COMMIT
56" X 78" _ Acrylic, Latex and
Spraypaint on Canvas
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Robert McClendon spent 17 years in prison for the rape and kidnapping of his own ten-year-old daughter. Crimes he did not commit.
Allegedly he told the girl that he was her father. She believed him because he looked like a man in some of her mother’s photos.
When questioned by authorities as to who attacked her, the girl said “I think it was my dad but I may be wrong because my eyes were
covered.” She had only actually seen him one time in her entire life.
A limited lab test in 1990 failed to find any physical
evidence during an examination of the girl at a hospital soon after the rape occurred. There was also no evidence found on the
victim’s underwear. DNA testing was not performed.
In 1991, he took a lie detector test administered by an Ohio State Highway
Patrol examiner and it was declared that his answers “could be a deliberate attempt at deception.”
The only evidence against
Robert at his trial was the testimony of his daughter and the state’s accusation that he had failed the lie detector exam. He
had solid alibi witnesses who could account for his whereabouts at the time of the rape. Still, he was sentenced to 15 years
to life in prison.
In 2004 Robert filed a motion in state court seeking DNA testing of the rape victim’s underwear. A Franklin
County judge never even bothered to respond to his motion.
In 2007 and 2008, working closely together, the Ohio Innocence Project
and reporters from the Columbus Dispatch along with an Ohio lab who DNA tested the evidence for free, found that the semen that was
found on the victim’s underwear could not have come from Robert. Another man had committed the rape. Robert was set free on
August 12, 2008.
Convicted: 1991
Exonerated: 2008
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