Innocent man lived decades behind bars
Most people would regard spending the greater part of their adult lives behind bars for a crime they did not commit to be among the worst possible nightmares imaginable. But James Robert McClurkin lived that nightmare.
McClurkin was a free man Thursday for the first time in 43 years and a month. For 39 of those years, the Chester native was incarcerated at the Broad River Correctional Institution for a murder he did not commit.
McClurkin was paroled Oct. 11 on his 15th parole hearing for a murder conviction involving the 1973 killing of Chester car wash clerk Claude Killian. McClurkin has steadfastly denied from the beginning that he was innocent.
But at the time a jury found the testimony of a co-defendant, who blamed McClurkin and Ray Charles Degraffenreid for Killian’s death, more compelling. That co-defendant, Melvin “Smokey” Harris, testified at the trial as a witness for the prosecution that he heard McClurkin and Degraffenreid talking about the robbery and later saw them flee after shots were fired.
But Harris, who died in prison last year after he was convicted in an unrelated 1992 murder, recanted his testimony before his death. He admitted he had committed the crime himself and had lied in his sworn testimony.
But McClurkin and Degraffenreid had no luck convincing parole officers of their innocence despite having credible alibis, witnesses and other evidence showing they were somewhere else when Killian was murdered. A judge ruled in 1993 that Harris’ claim he had lied during the trial was not credible because he changed his story three times.
That might have been the end of it. But Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood reopened the case, and his detectives found problems with the original investigation, including the block of evidence that the two men were not at the scene of the robbery. The evidence suggested they weren’t even in Chester at the time.
Degraffenreid remains in jail, so beset with crippling mental problems that he has been deemed too disjointed to participate in a parole hearing. The false conviction essentially cost him his life.
His lawyers now are working to find a mental health and treatment facility where Degraffenreid could go.
McClurkin was more fortunate – although only nominally. He at least can spend the rest of his days outside prison walls. His lawyer, Jeffrey Bloom, will compile documents and talk to witnesses interviewed during the murder investigation to make the case that that McClurkin should not only be freed but also officially exonerated.
We hope McClurkin succeeds in clearing his name. That is the least he deserves.
McClurkin was no angel in the 1970s. He was serving time in prison for a 1973 robbery when he was charged in the Killian case.
But it appears likely now that prosecutors ignored evidence that could have cleared McClurkin and Degraffenreid, and used an unreliable snitch to persuade a jury of their guilt. It is amazing that McClurkin is not consumed with bitterness.
In addition to exoneration, the two men might pursue civil damages.
This case is a reminder of a time when defendants – especially black defendants – could be railroaded by the system. The pressure to successfully prosecute a case too often overrode the right to a fair trial.
McClurkin and Degraffenreid are not the only ones to suffer such injustice. Hundreds of other cases have been overturned because of new evidence, with DNA evidence often providing new avenues to free innocent people.
We all realistically must acknowledge that our justice system is imperfect even under ideal conditions. But we can only recoil when the system is distorted – sometimes maliciously – and innocent people sacrifice huge portions of their lives behind bars.
McClurkin is free, but it took too long.
This story was originally published November 22, 2016 at 6:32 PM with the headline "Innocent man lived decades behind bars."